Zoophobia
by ButterflyArrows
Summary: A Phobia is something someone fears more than anything in the world. Rachel Roth has always lived with her fear, she has friends that help her endure it but now she needs to overcome it. Garfield Logan steps up to this challange, when her family starts to slip into his quest, will they have the currage to finish what they started?
1. Part One: Road Trip

Part One: Rachel

The sun was rising when I woke up from _that_ dream again. It's been haunting me all of my life, I felt the swat roll down the side of my face, but that could have easily been from the heat outside. The free dark blue hair was sticking to my skin. I was in a car, not just any car, the T-car. Victor's _baby_. But because his girlfriend would have killed him if her _human_ friends had seen this car, it was currently a convertible. We were parked in a parking lot at some store, this was where we crashed last night.

Victor Stone was 'powered down' his _baby_ charging him as he slept, but to anyone looking at him, they wouldn't know he was half robot, his holograph allowed him to look entirely human. With the rising sun and the heat that had to already be at 80° even though it was only 5:30 in the morning, according to the clock I could see out of the corner of my eye. You could see him like you would in daylight. He was bald, so his shiny head was shinning, his dark brown skin was covered with a black tank top and jean pants, over his dark brown eyes were his shades. Around his neck was a silver chain with a ring on it, that kept him looking completely human. If he didn't have that, he would be look half cyborg.

In the passenger seat, next to Victor, was Wallace West. His orange hair was messy and he was curled in a ball on his seat. I tried not to laugh at that. He had on a bright orange T-shirt with a T-rex eating a stick figure on it, and black running shorts covering his peach skin. On his index finger was a silver ring, it was his power nullifier, I had a bracelet that limited my powers while we didn't need them. Wally's power was super speed, like his uncle who was famous as The Flash. Wally tends to go off at super speed without realizing it.

I had my long blue hair held back in a braid, a messy braid that was falling apart. My shirt was a white tank top and I had on black short shorts, my feet were bare but that's only because I kicked off my sandles sometime last night. My skin was gray, it was natural, and my eyes were a dark blue that looked fake compared to other people with blue eyes.

I whipped the sweat of my forehead with a gray hand and sat for a few moments. When I sat up I grabbed my camera case as well as my journal. After, as quietly as I could, jumping out of the car I made my way to the store, it was closed... or abandoned, I couldn't tell. I set my things on the ground and pulled out my professional camera. I got paid to run an online blog about my experiences, and people have been asking me to do one on Fears. The thought sent shivers down my spine, I was offered tipple my normal rate for this specific story, it would be ongoing for a unnone amount of time. And the amount I would be getting paid, will pay off my college lones and a lot more if I continue to go with this carrier.

I didn't exactly run my own blog, I journaled everything and took the Photo's, Victor, who shares 10% of my profit, updates the blog for me, he is a mechanical wonder. I'm not just saying that because he's half robot. Even before his accident he could just about do anything when it came to technology. I let him handle the work that I would never understand, and he enjoyed helping me.

Wally came with us for two reasons. The first was to see me while I try to over come my fear of animals. The Scientific name for it: Zoophobia. He is here for support and to laugh at me. What a great friend. The second reason (other than he wanted to come) is because someone needs to hold my camera while this is going on. Wally may not be a professional like I was, but he could get in some good shots. Wally's speciality lays in the hands of music, (unless you want to count his super power.) He was a musician and because we're friends, we often worked together. He tought me how to play the base guitar, I tought him how proessinaly use a camera. And I couldn't bare the thought of leaving him, he's been my friend longer than Victor's none me.

The three of us worked together and separately. It's how we worked, pulse when your a branch of the Justice League hero's, we work together more often than not.

I pulled the camera up to my eye and aimed it at the car where my friends were sleeping. I took a shot of them and switched it over to video mode, moving it away from my face I hit record, watching it through the small screen. "And this is the start of the longest year of my life." I spoke to the camera, "normally a video blog isn't my thing, and I have no idea how Victor is going to post this, but considering the challenge you've put me on, I find video's to be the best suited." I turned the camera towards me. "Behind me, is some random store we stopped at last night so the boy's could sleep. Victor doesn't trust Wally or myself driving one of his _baby's_. I rolled my eyes and turned, aiming the camera at the store. "It's nearly six in the morning and I'm wide awake with the creepy run down shop. The sleeping beauty's wont be up for another hour or so, I think I'm going to go inside." With that I pushed open the door and walked into the dark shop.

Even in the shade of the building, I could still feel the outside heat making sweat beed's drip down my skin. The first chance I get, I'm taking a cold shower. The floor creaked as I stepped inside, the eerieness sent a chill down my spine. The shadows of the old shelves made some areas extremely dark as the main of the room was starting to light with the sun. I slowly walked into the room more, getting a better look at everything with both my eyes and camera. Feather trailed down my back and I spun on my heel. "Wallace!" I snapped at him getting the boy to laugh.

"Come on Ray, the camera should've gotten your face when that happened." He slipped the camera out of my hands and pointed it at me. "Rachel Roth, steps into the old creepy Store in the middle of nowhere," he narrated. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms,

"You're such a kid." I stated flatly. "Why are you up?"

"I heard you jump out of the car, your not as light on your feet as you think Love." He walked around me, keeping the camera fixed on my face.

"Don't call me that." I hissed.

"Why are you up this early?" He asked, ignoring my comment looking around the store.

"Couldn't sleep." I sighed, he looked at me. I could tell what he wanted to ask but a noise made both of us shut up. On the counter next to me, a extremely fluffy cat stood, watching us. I couldn't tell what Wally was doing but I couldn't move. The blood in my body went cold, fear was clearly marked on my face.

"What a cute cat." Wally went over to pet it, his hand brushing through the fir. That only lasted a moment before it jumped onto the ground and brushed itself against my feet.

"Get it away!" I screamed backing into Wally so fast that it knocked us both down. I scrambled to my feet and sprinted out of the room, not stopping until I was safely next to the car. Wally was laughing, I could hear that from here. He walked out of the shop and picked up my journal before putting the camera back on me.

"The girl who's scared of animals. She can jump off a waterfall, skydive, cave-dive, and whatever else the blog holds or doesn't hold, but a cat scares the shit out of her." Victor was up by now, watching as I covered the camera lens and took it away from Wally. I quickly stopped recording and turned the camera off. Wally tossed my journal into the back of the car and went back to grab my camera case.

"You ran into a cat?" Victor asked after I grumply got into the back of the car.

"It touched me." I stated pulling a book out of one of my many bags. "It rubbed up against my leg and I flipped out." I flipped the book open to the bookmarked page and started reading.

"I heard," he chuckled. Wally was back and Victor started up the car. He took no time racing out of the parking lot and down the road towards our new home. "We'll be arriving early today, I heard Bee say she was making pancakes."


	2. Part One: A Warm Welcome

The ranch, we would be staying at for the next X amount of days was large. It looked as if it were made to house people. There were seven cars, not including Victor's as he pulled in, already parked outside. A barn was open and there were... Dogs wandering around. Well, this was an Animal Rescue Shelter/Animal Reserve. I could see the different terrains for the many types of animals that were sheltered here. A few of the dogs barked as we stepped out of the car, I had my backpack (currently filled with my camera case, journal's, two books, and my laptop (and cords). A suitcase with cloths in it as well as a smaller bag with some personal items that I couldn't bear to part with after all these years, including a picture of my mother, who I never knew. A picture of me and my father, who passed on a while back, a necklace my mother had left me, and a story book my father used to read to me when my nightmare would keep me up. Wally had his backpack and suitcase, and Victor... was keeping all of his things in his car for the time being. He packed the most.

We walked to the door, which was wide open, the ranch was more than the home to the few workers that lived here. It also served as a Hotel and restaurant. A man about our age, 19-20, was leaning against a chair with a monkey settled on his shoulder, talking to a girl. The man had blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin. He had on a green T shirt and tan shorts. The girl, who I recognized right away, had light brown skin, black hair in pig tales, and a yellow sundress on. She seemed annoyed.

The monkey was the first to notice us, he jumped onto the ground and climbed onto the counter the girl was currently at, taking a flower out of a vais and jumping back to the ground. He made his way over too the three of us, no, he made his way over to me. I stumbled backwards and fell. "He's giving you a flower Ray, it's only polite to take it." Wally was going to break down laughing. The monkey was in fact holding the flower out to me. I shook my head, unable to speak at the current time.

"Max, we talked about this." The girl walked over and picked the monkey up, she looked apologetically at me. "Sorry Rachel," she turned back to the monkey. "What did I tell you yesterday? You stay with Gar when my friends got here." She handed the monkey back over to the boy as Victor helped me up. Wally was laughing now. "Wallace, it's not funny." Bee stated flatly, in a tone that made him shut up. I'd have to learn that one from her.

"You can't say you didn't want to laugh when she tripped." Wally spoke only making the glare worse.

"Garfield, these are Victor Stone, Rachel Roth and Wallace West. Rachel's the one you're going to be helping. Guy's this is Garfield Logan the owner of the reserve, and this is Max." Bee pointed to the boy then the monkey.

"Welcome," Garfield greeted. "You're rooms are ready, I'll show you to them." He started to the back of the building, Bee was at my side when we started walking.

"Sorry about Max, he's the house pet, along with the dogs... but the monkey can get anywhere." She glanced at me. "He doesn't always listen to what we tell him."

"I-It's okay." My voice was still shaky. Bee handed me the flower and I looked at it.

"Take it, it'll keep him satisfied for a day or so." My room was nice, it had a queen sized bed, a desk and dresser as well as a closet and TV. The windowed wall gave me a view of a forest. Bee stayed with me and helped me unpack. "Where'd you leave everything else?" She asked me.

"Wally's aunt is keeping it in storage." I responded, she nodded as I plugged my laptop into the wall near the desk. "How have things been?" I asked her, she was putting my cloths in the closet and dresser.

"Quiet, there's not much crime around here. People either don't want to travel out this far, or the animals aren't interesting enough." Bee spoke, I plugged my Phone charger under the computer's plug. I set my camera bag next to the laptop.

Bee was now working on setting up my books on top of the dresser. I opened my small bag and set out my photo's on the dresser end nearest the bed. After I put the bag in a droure that hadn't been filled yet. "Garfield's going to work with you on your phobia, he chose to give you this room for a reason. The glass wall is the one facing the reserve, you can enter it without having to go around, the door's over here." She walked over to the glass door that I hadn't seen earlier. She opened it allowing a warm breeze of air to enter the room. "There's also a gate around the room, he set that up a few nights ago, it make's sure none of the animals can get close if you want to come out here. Other than that, when this door is closed, they can get as close as the window."

"Did he design it?" I asked, Bee laughed.

"No, he just set it up. Victor made it." She closed the door and sat on my bed. "The glass shouldn't break, unless an unnone forsee smashes it." She glanced at me for a moment.

"I have that under control now." I assured her, she nodded.

"But other than that, he's going to start you off with small and nicer animals. Like Max," she nodded over to the door where the monkey was half hiding behind the wall and watching them. "He's a sweet heart." The monkey saw the flower resting on the dresser, where Bee had set it after getting everything put away. "He may not understand why you're scared of him, but he's going to try his hardest to help you. We all will."

Wally was interested in one of the restaurant workers. She was a live in worker and her name was Lucky. From what he described, she had pink hair, pink eyes and gray skin. I hadn't seen her yet but we were outside, my camera was wrapped around my neck as I took pic's of Bee working in her part of the reserve, the insect house. She was currently working with bee's, spraying them to put them into sleep so she could collect the honey. I had gotten some good shots so far, as Wally talked about the girl he had met when getting something to eat. Considering we were basically living here for a while, two out of three of our meals were free, not including snacks, and we all had to pay a monthly rent, easy enough.

Victor was in and out of the house, setting up his room. I expected it to take a while, Garfield was helping him, they were talking about ways to upgrade the Ranch house in an eco-friendly way. Over the course of the few months that we've been planning this trip, the two had become good friends... through their phone conversations. Victor was all for helping them upgrade the Ranch. He had plans for solar powered everything. That was his job while he was here. The only one that wasn't here on official business, other than to help me with my blog, was Wally. But he'd find something to do soon enough.

Bee came out of the Insect house with two buckets of honey. She had her name for a reason. She slipped out of her gear and put it away in the shed and we followed her inside where she went to her station in the kitchen. She tested, bottle, labeled and usually sent out the honey for some extra cash The ones she shipped were boxed and put into storage until she had a few full boxes to send out. The ones she kept here went to the kitchen workers. "So nothing officially starts until Victor has his room set up."

"That could take weeks." Wally stated getting us to laugh. It was true.

"So tonight at dinner, we'll set something up. Ray you'll probably start tomorrow." I nodded slowly. "Gar will take you out on his normal run's and what not. I have to stay up near the ranch, tecnicly I sign people in for whatever they're here for. Wally, I have no idea what to do with you." She looked at the redhead. He grinned.

"I'm Rachel's photographer." He said.

"Not the entire time." Bee stated mater of factly. "And I know you don't like waking at the crack of dawn every day." Wally sighed in defeat.


	3. Part One: Familys

"_Daddy!" The black surrounded me as claws dug into my side, teeth sank into my arm._

"_Rachel! Let her go! She has nothing to do with this!" I was pulled out of the cage by my hair, blood streaming down my arms and legs, my cloths were torn and my body was a scream of pain. I was tossed onto the ground, the dirt rubbing into my wounds._

"_Tell us where Arella is!" The man shouted at my chained father._

"_I don't know!" Dad cried, I was lifted again, "I swear I don't know!" The man tossed me back into the cage of animals, at once they attacked._

I found myself sitting straight up in bed, I was covered in sweat again. _That _dream again. I got out of bed and walked over to my laptop, turning it on. The screen lit up the dark room and my body relaxed some. Taking a deep breath I walked out of the room and towards the kitchen. I'm sure I could get a cold drink of water.

The Ranch was dark, it had closed for the night, letting the workers sleep. It seemed dead now that it was nearly five in the morning. I opened the door into the kitchen and found that I wasn't alone. Garfield stood making what like soup. He turned hearing the door creak open. "You're up early."

"Couldn't sleep." I responded going to where the glasses were held. Bee had shown me yesterday. He let me fill it with water before speaking again.

"Bad dream?" I kept my gaze at the cup in my hands.

"Terrifying." I sipped the water. The microwave went off and he pulled out a glass of steaming milk.

"Talking about it usually helps." He commented, I leaned against the counter. Thinking about it, he was going to help me attempt to overcome this fear. My hands were shaking and the small waves in the glass reached the edge.

"Not yet..." I breathed out to calm myself. _Those_ memories weren't something I'm willing to bring out myself even if they constantly haunt me. I felt a small zap on my wrist, even if the nullifyer did dim my powers, they could still break out. "I can't..." I mumbled for him to hear. "It's not something... I can talk about yet..."

"Then let's talk about something else. What's your family like?" He asked before taking a sip of his warm milk. I set my glass on the counter.

"I never knew my mother, after she gave birth to me, she left me in the care of a man she was close friends with. My father is..." I took a long breath. "A horrible man. He and my brothers are the reason I'm scared of animals." I stared at the ground. "But the man who took care of me, was extremely kind and caring. He took me in at my mother's request and raised me the best he could, treating me as his own child and doing what he could to protect me from my real father while he was alive."

"He died?"

"Some time ago..." I sighed. "I was twelve. The published story was that he died in a car crash... The real story was he died trying to save me from another... attack."

"Getting close to what you don't want to talk about?" He guessed. I nodded. There was a pause. "Give me hints."

"Hints?" I looked at him. He nodded.

"I have to have a idea to why your scared of animals if I'm going to help you. All Bee told me was that you've been scared of them since long before she met you." He told me.

"She know's more than she says." I looked back at the ground. I sighed again, thinking of how to say it without bringing too many memories back. "My mother was raised in a gang. She was supposed to marry my father but he's not exactly... nice. So she ran away after giving birth to me, the gang... more specifically my father didn't take too kindly to that so after five years he started hunting for her, starting with the person he knew her to be closest to..."

_The doors burst open as dad and I sat in the living room working on a puzzle. "Rachel get behind me." Dad told me and I hid behind his legs as the men stormed into the room._

"_Where is she!" The tallest of them all screamed at dad. "I know you know where she is!"_

"They stormed my house and when father couldn't answer any of their questions about mother, he discovered that I was his child."

_Dad was knocked out and I screamed in shock and fear. The man approached me and lifted my chin. His eyes slightly widened and they flashed red. Something about this made me feel at ease, I felt my body relax but the room around us took it differently. Everything started spinning, everything was moving uncontrollably as if some unexplained force was controlling it. "You were created with my power." The man spoke to me, I shouldn't have understood that at my age, but I was more advanced than most of the five year olds I knew. This man, was my real father._

"I was kidnapped with Rudolph and we were taken to an abandoned theme park." Garfield waited for me to continue. Letting me talk at my own pace. "They tortured me to get information that Rudolph didn't have. I was put in a cage with animals that attacked me." My nullifyer shocked me again. "This happened multiple times throughout my life, but the more recent ones were to get me to join my father and brothers in their gang."

There was a long pause, the warm morning air creating sweat drops to roll down my skin. "What about your family?" I asked him, not taking my eyes off the floor.

"My parents were genetic scientists, they loved traveling and learning about animals but when I was born they had to settle down. So they built this reserve to continue their studys and raise me in a single area. They both died when I was seven, they were working on an experiment with Max's parents and Max and I were playing in the barn where the explosion took place." I looked at him, he seemed to be trying to think of what happened after. "I can't recall much after the explosion. Max's dad survived and still lives out in the reserve. Max didn't get hurt bad, I took most of the blow for him. After being hospitalized for a few months I was aloud to return home. My friend Richard and his guardian Bruce looked over the reserve while I was hospitalized. After I returned some of the workers raised me, they and the animals became my family." He smiled slightly as of a happy memory popped into his head. "I can show you a picture of them, it's in the lounge."

He set down his glass and led me out to the lounge. The portrait was large, there was a woman with long curly red hair holding a young blond baby boy with a blond haired man standing behind them. The adults were wearing white lab coats and smiling, while the baby was wrapped in a blanket. "That's my mom Maria and my dad Mark." I didn't know how to respond. "Have any photo's your your mom or Rudolph?"

I looked at him for a long moment. "A few." I responded turning to go to my room, he followed me. I took the photo of me and Rudolph off of the dresser and handed it to him. "That was taken shortly before he died."

"Reminds me of Wally," Garfield spoke. I smiled a bit.

"It's his dad." I responded quietly. "We spent a lot of time together... Wally's a few months younger than me, he lived alone with his mom until shortly after..." My voice trailed off. "His mom died in a fight against cancer, she and Rudolph only stopped seeing each other because of me." I picked a photo of a woman sitting on a window couch reading a book. Her hair matched mine in color, but it was cut short, framing her face pale face. She had on a long black dress as if she were dressed for a formal party. "This is my mother." I showed the photo to him. He looked at it.

"You look alike." He spoke quietly.

"I've been told," my voice drifted off. "Rudolph told me that I acted like her, a lot of our qualities are the same, I think it's because of how much he told me about her when I was younger. He loved her, but weather or not she returned the feelings... I'm not sure." It was quiet for a long amount of time before a sound from my computer drove my attention. I walked over and checked it.

A message from one of my friends popped onto the screen. 'Ray, news from your daddy watcher came in not to long ago. He's not happy with your new story, I'd watch your back and make sure to keep your three eyes open. I heard that Jaremy has plans to hunt you down again. -Koi'

I felt a chill run down my spine. The small metal bracelet cracked and fell into several peaces on the ground. I minimized the chat box and took a deep breath.


	4. Part One: Slipping

"Gar!" The voice rang out as I watched him get the jeep ready, turning I saw a blond haired girl running towards Garfield. She had long hair, light peach skin and blue eyes. Her outfit was a short sleeved gray and black T-shirt, jean shorts that reached her knees and brown gloves. Garfield turned hearing his name. He smiled and waved as she drew near. She tackled him to the ground and started what looked like a wrestling match. I rubbed my wrist where the cuts from the nullifier shattered against my skin. My new one, that Victor took five minutes making was around my ankle.

Max was cheering on the fight, for who to win, I don't know. The girl finally pinned him down and they both laughed. "Dude, there's a new Zombie Smasher game out, it's in my bag we _have_ to play it." She spoke getting up and offering her hand to him. He took it and she pulled him to her feet.  
"Sweet!" Garfield cheered. "Blood and guts flying!" This is someone that takes care of animals?

"Not to mention the new weapons added, flame thrower, saw, fire extinguisher, hatchet~" I could see him being drawn in with every word she spoke. "Not to mention, new boards, extra waves of zombies AND a final boss that can rebuild itself." I could practically see the need to play the game materialize next to him.

Victor stood next to me, he looked at the two for a moment. "Video games?" He asked.

"Video games," I agreed. Victor laughed, "I think it's your game, actually, Zombie Smasher." He grinned, it was his game. Development and game creation is one of his many specialty's.

"One of my best works." He praised himself.

"You've done better, look at the T-car." I mumbled. "And you still havent tought me how to use that stupid game controller."

"You're just not meant to play video games, the controller is the easiest part to use." He laughed, getting the other's attention. "No, you're not meant to work with any sort of electronics that I haven't specially created for you."

"Speaking of which, I think my computer has a short in the screen, could you check it out?" I glanced up at him. Keeping my expression blank but the line itself should say anything.

"Might as well, I need to update it anyways." He understood, his arms crossed.

"Oh my god." The girl squealed. "You're Rachel Roth!" She was at my side. "I follow your blog, you've been everywhere!" Her face was in mine and I backed away slightly. "I loved when you went cliff diving and that time you climbed the mountain without any equipment. Those walls were steep how did you do it?"

"Uh..." How do I respond without giving away the reason for most of those journeys, chasing after Slade.

"Or when you went to the mountain top and spent three months training different martial arts with Richard Grayson and the dojo was ambushed, that footage was amazing." She continued speaking.

"W-Well I like adventuring s-so it's not hard to find a blog topic..." I said sheepishly. Victor laughed.

"It's not hard to risk your life but its painful to face a cat."

"Those things are vicious!" I snapped at him.

"Attack of the fluffy cuddly fur ball," he mocked me. "Scary." I glared, "I saw the clip Wally took yesterday, it rubbed against your leg and you sprinted. It wasn't even a full grown cat."

"You're scared of cats?" The girl asked, she backed away now.

"She's scared of all animals." Victor corrected. This confused her more. "Her latest job request was about fears, so I contacted our old friend who works here and its history from there. You should've seen her yesterday when Max tried to say hi." I felt a zap against my leg and I rubbed the skin around the nullifier. The girl noticed that.

"Nice anklet," the statement seemed off.

"It's a tracking device." I responded. "If I get lost, Victor can find me." She shrugged it off. "So... you know me... but who are you?"

"Terra Markov," Garfield responded. "She's a good friend of mine." A pink light shot through the door and hit Garfield dead in the forehead. Terra caught him as he fell.

"T get him on the deck." A girl with pink hair stepped out. "We got company." I got out of the way as the blond carried the boy to one of the chairs.

"Rachel," Bee was next to me. "Kori contacted me saying that Jeremy was on his way to pay us a visit." I glanced her for a moment. "There's a high chance that he has some pets with him." I stood, looking at the two girls. "Lucky and Terra are like us, Lucky and I work together here and Terra moves back and forth between the city and here. She used to live here before her powers developed."

"I'm the reason their's a mountain in the reserve." Terra rubbed the back of her head. "So who's Jeremy?"

"My brother..." The nullifier shattered.

"Ray I just made that!" Victor complained.

"Not the problem sparkey!" Bee glared. "Right now it's better if she doesn't have it on. Someone get Wally,"

"He won't be needed." I felt myself freeze at the sound of the voice. "In fact, none of you are needed." A flash of light came from my left and everyone was struggling to stay up. He was in front of me now, like myself, he had paper white skin and dark blue eyes, but his hair was dark brown. His shirt was black and had a leather jacket covering it, and he had on jeans. A large python was resting on his shoulders. He smirked. "Still can't control you can I Sis?" The snake hissed.

I stepped back and he laughed. The snake dropped towards the ground and wrapped around his feet. "W-Why can't y-you leave m-me alone?" I took another step back. He laughed again and the snake moved closer too her.

"And disappoint dad? As if, go get her Grace." The snake lunged and my body instinctively told me to run. A blue beam of light hit Jeremy knocking him back. Victor released himself from Jeremy's trap. The snake was still moving towards me, I couldn't move.

"Rachel," another blue beam shoots itself through the air only to be returned with black energy.

"This is family matters, stay out of it!" It started wrapping itself around me and I whimpered. My powers were going haywire, the ground exploding, some of the wood from the porch shattered. It bit into my arm, sinking its teeth deep into my skin. A scream escaped my lips as the earth under Jeremy's feet exploded.

I was being squeezed. "Get it off her!" I heard Victor call out, Bee was next too me.

"Rachel it's going to be okay," she told me. My legs gave out and I fell into her. The sound of dogs coming closer brought me to a panic, and the snake's grasp only became tighter. Pain struck as the dogs bit my legs, arms and stomch, Bee did her best too keep them off me. These were the ranch's dog's, they must be under the influence of Jeremy's power.

"W-What's going on?" That was Garfield's voice.

"Lucky!" Bee called out and the pink haired girl rushed over, "jinx it." A flash if pink light escaped her fingers and the snake crumbled to the ground. "Get Wally up and out here." Another wave of dog attacks came, Bee did her best to keep some away.

I tried to stand, this will stop when _he_ leaves, at least for a little while. _He_ needs to go. "Rachel you're too weak-"

_Azarath Metrion Zinthos! _The sound of a Raven's cry could be heard over the raging fight between Jeremy and Victor. My hair flew out of it's braid and the black energy Raven shot out of my shadow. My skin started glowing with red marks that brought another laugh out of my brother. The Raven shot out towards him devouring him in a shadow of black. I heard talking but all I could concentrate on was the unheard screams of terror coming from my brother.

A hand covered my eyes and an arm held onto my waist, supporting me. My mind went blank.

"I was assigned here too help protect the animals," Bee was talking. "You have some rare animals here and a little superhuman power can only help protect them." I opened my eyes to see a small monkey staring at me. I made a squeaking noise and tried to get as far away from it as I could. Wally was holding me back. Everyone was now looking at me.

"I needed a place to stay so I decided to help out around the reserve." Lucky shrugged returning to their conversation. "Food and shelter, it's good to have."

"Victor, Wallace and Rachel are wanderer's, they travel together and go where they need to go, but Rachel's job often determines where they end up." Bee spoke again. I looked down at my hands, I felt horrible, this was all my fault. Bee was doing an amazing job at keeping her secret and now this happens.

"That's a lot to take in." Garfield spoke. "Superhero's are real."

"Yeah," Bee agreed. "It's a lot to take in if you didn't grow up with." She laughed, I looked down at my hands, Wally still keeping me on the couch by sitting on my legs. They were starting to fall asleep.

"Who was that guy?" Garfield asked.

"Jeremy Roth." Wally answered, I winced slightly at his name. "One of her three younger brothers." He was pointing at me. "It's a ongoing thing for one of the three to show up where we are and try to kidnap her."

"Ongoing?"

"Sense she developed her powers, I'd say that was when she turned twelve." Wally thought for a moment, "the night dad was murdered..." I looked at the couch not wanting to look at anyone. "It was a hard year for the both of us." He shrugged it off like it was nothing. We both had different feelings for that. Rudolph died trying to save my life. "They didn't discover that she had her powers until we got out of highschool, when their next visit came."

"What about you?" Lucky asked, Wally looked at her. "How'd you get your powers?"

"I can't feel my legs..." I mumbled quietly being ignored by the boy sitting on them.

"I recreated the Flash explosion." He was grinning, "The Flash and I knew each other well and I discovered who he was. He wouldn't willingly take me on as his apprentice at first... But after some events happened it was history." He didn't take anything seriously. Ever.

"That's stupid." Lucky stated bluntly. "What about you tin man?"

"Proper name is Cyborg." Victor responded, his voice was more serious. "I was in a car crash when I was younger and in order to keep me alive, they turned me into a half cyborg man." He spoke then glanced at Bee who was intentionally avoiding his eyes. "It's actually how I met everyone else. Bee's dad was the doctor who gave me another chance to live, by then Bee was already friends with Rachel and Wally. How that happened, I'm not sure."

"They were hard to get along with." Bee agreed, nodding her head slightly. "Especially when the redhead hardly let anyone near Rachel."

"With good reason." Wally rolled his eyes.

"I'm still stuck on the superhero part." Garfield admitted. Terra smiled at him sheepishly.

"Well why don't you get some background information on us, it will help you understand all of this more." She suggested. Everyone, excluding me, agreed to this. Wally looked at me, I was still looking at the couch.

"I'll go first." Wally spoke, "for Rachel." I looked at him for a moment before returning my gaze to the dark blue cloth. "Rachel was raised by my dad, her real father was obsessed with finding Arella but after discovering Rachel, he wanted to leave her scared for the rest of her life. Every few years he hunts her down, her brothers are more constant about finding her. But when Trigon come he makes sure she suffers... Back when I didn't have my power, I had to sit and watch each time he would shove her into a cage filled with monstrous animals. They were nothing like the animals you have here, they attacked out of anger, out of rage."

_The fangs ripped open my skin, every scream I made only made them angrier, only made the attacking worse. I cried, pleading for it all to stop but nothing came. I could her dad's cries to let me go, his struggle against his chains to free himself. "Pathetic." Trigon's voice reached me as I was torn out of the cage. I was shaking, his cold hands squeezing onto my arms, leaving marks._

"Dad died when he was trying to protect her," Wally's voice pulled me out of the memories. "After that day I made it my job to protect her, I was always at her side and when they came looking, we ran. We ran from town to town, covering a lot of the country before finding Bee's father when Rachel couldn't run any more. He took her in as a patient, Bee came to help every so often but I was always at her side keeping anyone away who wasn't supposed to be there."


	5. Part One: Tour

I tried not to panic as Max came closer, tried. Garfield watched, he sat on the hood of his jeep and I stood, on the ground in front of the ranch as the monkey approached me. Today was a much calmer day than yesterday. After Jeremy's attack, nothing else happened. Garfield decided to take things slow with me, starting with me getting to know the monkey. Too close, too close! My mind screamed at me and I backed up against the hood of the jeep. Garfield did his best to not laugh.

"That was better than when you arrived here." He gave me a smile, "alright Max, go find Bee for a treat." The monkey hobbled off into the house. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. "You alright?"

"Shaken," I responded. He was quiet for a moment.

"They try to find you often?" I nodded slowly, cursing my family problems. "I wish there was a way I could help."

"You are helping," I looked at him. "By letting me stay here and helping me overcome my fear."

"You'll always be scared, to a degree." He responded looking at the sky. "Back when my parents were alive, I was scared for them all the time. They were always making chemicals, always working with DNA, I was scared that one day, an experiment would go horribly wrong. And when it did, I was helpless."

"You were only a kid." I responded. He shook his head.

"Not the point," he looked at the sky. "You'll always have some sort of fear when it comes to animals, whether it be being devoured by them or letting them touch you, we won't know until later. But taking steps to understand animals is a good start to being able to control that fear." He looked back at me. "Do you prefer to read or watch?"

"That's hard to choose from." I said he chuckled.

"I have a tone of books about animals, I barely touch them, I think it's easier to understand an animal's habits by watching them and making your own book about that animal in your head." He told me, I found myself checking each word into my brain, as if a way to never forget them. "Common," he got off the hood of the car and made his wat to the drivers seat. "I'll give you a tour." The engine started as I got in next to him. "You scared of water?" He asked turning on a screen that showed a map of the reserve.

"I've dived off of some of the tallest waterfalls in the world," I responded. He nodded, looking over an email that popped up over the map.

"Please keep your hands and feet inside the vesical at all times, Logan ranch is not responsible for any lost or stolen items." He smiled as the jeep sped away from the building at a speed Victor would be proud of. We approached a flashing red dot on the map quickly and from what I could make out in the distance, it was a small house sitting in the plains. There was another jeep parked outside the small house when we arrived there, stopping with a loud screech.

On the other side of the house, I could see a river that spread out in both directions seemingly extending out to a mass of trees I could barely see from here and a large mountain. "It circles the reserve." Garfield said getting out of the car as the door too the house opened. A man dressed in the classic rangers outfit stepped out holding a something wrapped in a blanket.

"Found him wandering just over the rocks, looks like it's mother abandoned it." The man spoke as Gar took the wrapped item, I stepped out of the car as he took the blanket off of the cheetah cub and looked it over, it pawed at his hand.

"More likely he wandered away from his mother." Garfield responded. "Getting him back will be the hard part, he's got our cent now."

"I'd say take him back to the main house, let him grow some before sending him back out." The man responded. Garfield covered the cub back up, "you're boats ready as you asked. Lea might need help when you hit her lookout, a black bear came in injured the other night and it looks ready to give birth."

"Thank's Al," the man named Al nodded. "We should reach her by noon, send her the message and see if she can get basket packed."

"Yes sir." The man walked back inside before Garfield motioned him to follow him. A motor boat sat in the river waiting to be used. He hopped in and set the cub on one of the five seats before offering his hand to me.

"Ranger stations?" I asked him as he pulled me on deck.

"One located every ten miles around the river," he nodded and picked the cub back up before sitting in the drivers seat, I stood behind the chair next to him. "They rotate out every few weeks, most of those who work the stations are old friends that worked for my parents." The engine roared to life as he shifted into gear and started down the river. "Lea, works the station directly across from that one, though it's covered with trees."

"So it's a oval?" I asked watching as we passed a pack of lions fighting.

"More or less, once you start the round trip theres no sopping to turn around. The river branches off many times but we have to keep to the main path. That's how it was designed." The cub made a coughing sound and shifted in its blankets resting on Garfields lap. He didn't glance down at it but kept his attention on the river. "The branching parts of the river keep the land green, not only that but its a water source for every animal here."

"Let me guess, you have crocks and gaters?" I asked. He laughed.

"And up in the mountain area there's an entire lake filled with tons of different fish from around the world." I found myself watching the water ripple as we drove through it. "I'm sure you've seen most of the animals we have here, after hearing about Terra rant about your blog."

"I keep my distance." I responded. "My thing is more in skydiving, mountain climbing and what not."

"Adventures," he noted. "What exactly have you done?"

"Quiet a lot actually." I sat in the chair next to him. "Though most of it was related to chasing someone around the world," he glanced at me. "I have powers just like the others."

"I saw,"

"What you saw was panic and fear." I stated, rolling my eyes. "It was uncontrolled."

"Didn't seem like that, you had a direct attack."

"I also had to be forced to stop." I sighed. "Back to the earlier question," he stayed quiet, not pushing it. "Because of the man we were sent to apprehend that blog I run was able to start up, he took us on a trip around the world. We've been to the amazon, Mt. Everest, the artics, China, Japan. Each place a different blog post popped up and it was fun to challenge myself."

"What about your new challenge?" He glanced at me. "Think it will be fun?"

"Maybe, when I get over the fear factor." He laughed a bit and I raised my eyebrow.

"I used to watch that show," he laughed again. "It was a unintentional pun, go on."

"What sorcery did Bee put you under to allow me to be here?" I asked, curiously.

"I honestly thought it would be fun to help out. I was raised around animals so I've seen both the good and the bad." He glanced at the cub on his lap before pressing a button on the dashboard and picking it up. The blanket dropped from around it and landed on the floor as the cub pawed at his arm. "Once you understand other animals you get a better idea about how us humans are. The only difference between me and this cub is our shape."

He held it in one hand and ran his hand through its light orange and black speckled fur. I could hear the soft purr. "We all live on the same ideas, eat, sleep and survive. That's all we need, what us as humans have created, makes it seem like we're the superior being. But any predator out there could easily destroy us even with what we've created." He held out the cub and made it face me. It's large amber eyes looked at me curiously. It reached out, hitting my nose with a soft paw and making me fall out of the seat. "This one's quite playful. I belive that's the reason he was separated from his mother." He brought him back to look at him again.

I watched him, he was so calm, relaxed. I slowly got back into the chair and saw the open field was starting to be overwhelmed by trees. "Think you could hold him if he's wrapped back in the blanket?" Garfield glanced over at me. "I have to take the wheel again, to avoid the upcoming rocks and river splits."

"I don't know..." I watched him pick up the blanket and carefully wrap the cub. He held it out to me and I hesitated.

"He's not like Max, but the most harm he could do is nip at you, his claws haven't grown yet and his teeth aren't fully developed." I hesitantly took the cub from him, wresting it in my lap while it's front paws freed themselves from the blanket and he tried to reach me. I felt the boat speed up and start to turn. "This area is where Max's family lives, by now max should be a full grown -, but he's under developed." I looked up to see different monkeys swinging from vine to vine and playing with each other.

The cub made a yipping sound getting my attention. It had tangled itself deeper into the blanket while trying to roll over. "That's Max's father," I looked up again to see the monkey that Garfield was pointing at, he sat alone in a tree with patches of fur missing in marks that looked like scratches. "It's from the explosion, he got beat up but wasn't killed like my parents and his mate. I remember seeing him pull the corps out of the fire, after bringing me and Max out. But that's a blur, I passed out after that." I looked at the boy, he watched the monkey for a few moments, I could see it turning to face the other way after spotting us. "He isn't friendly with me."

"You, you, you..." The coo was defiantly from one of the monkeys, I looked back up at Max's father. "You, you, you..." He looked to be holding something in his hands and refusing to let it go.

I felt paws on my stomach and looked down, the cub had freed itself and was trying to climb up my chest. I froze in shock and fear, my eyes fixed on the cheetah as it tried to climb me.

"Smarter than he seems." Garfield glanced over, I couldn't find my voice to respond. The cub fell on his back and landed on my lap, it stared up at me. It's paws trying to reach me again. "The next ranger station is coming up, then we enter the wolf's area."

"W-Wolf?" I asked, he frowned a bit at the studer.

"They wont bother us," his hand lifted from the steering wheel for a moment before he decided against something and put it back. We passed under a bridge and the river split into three directions, we kept going forwards. The ranger station looked just as the first one had, only it's colors were darker for it didn't have as much contact with the sun. A man waved as we passed and Garfield waved back. "That's Chuck." He glanced at me again, then down to the cub who was now curled in a ball, sleeping. We sat in the quiet, letting a half hour pass before a new sound spread around us. The water was now moving faster, taking the boat with it, we were going downhill.

"Hold on," he told me, not concerned with the rapids. "Might get a bit bumpy." I lifted the sleeping cub from my lap by the blanket under it and stood, placing it in my seat.

"This, I'm used too." I spoke, mostly to myself as I made my way to the front of the boat where a railing was kept to keep anyone from falling over. We were getting faster and I could see how much of a downhill ride this was. It was only getting steeper and rocks were starting to move in stream. I slipped out of my sandles and jumped onto the top of the railing, taking a moment to sturdy myself before standing.

This is where it started, my love for risk taking. I remember this, we were going down some rapids in Brazil, Victor was driving and Wally was taking a nap in one of the many chairs. Victor's baby needed some special upgrades before it was able to float as it did that day. I stood, like I did now, waiting to see what would happen. Having been trained in some hand to hand combat my balance was stronger than most people. All it takes is to know where to stand.

The mist of the water hit me, sending a chill down my spine. It felt nice. I kept my arms at my side and closed my eyes. The adrenalin rush wasn't as extreme as the first time I did this, but I felt at ease compared to when I was holding the cub. The splash of the river evening out hit me hard but I kept my place, only opening my eyes when I felt a presence behind me. Garfield held his hand out to me and I took it, letting him help me down.

"I have time to spare before the next turn," he said, watching me. "You've done that before?"

"Many times." I responded, looking back out at the river. "In many different situations."


	6. Part One: The Pools

The pools, were larger than what I expected, and the company waiting for us shocked me. Terra and Wally were swimming, in an area cut off from the fish, a girl named Lea, was in her ranger station and had dragged Garfield off as soon as he had gotten here. It turns out that the mountain part he had been talking about, was larger than what you could see from the ranch. Bee and Lucky were setting up a picnic table with food, tons of food. And Victor was with his baby, working on some computer program.

"Rachel!" Wally called to me waving his arm. "You should dive in!"

"Nothing to dive from." I called back before walking over too Victor to pretend to know what he was doing. Turns out, he was watching the news.

'The Justice League released news today that the roomered meeting of all Superheros will take place in five days time.' The female reporter spoke. 'Including the wandering group of heros none as the Titans. Recently Robin, Starfire, Speedy and Wondergirl were successful in taking down the wanted criminal Deathstroke. The missing three Titans, Raven, Cyborg and Kid Flash have not been spotted within the last three months. This is what the team leader Robin, had to say.' The image changed too a questioning after the Deathstroke capture.

'Robin, where's the rest of your team?' A reporter asked. 'We didn't fail to notice that the three that spent the most time tracking Deathstroke are absent.'

'Each were released from the mission after the uncalled attack by the gang leader Trigon had happened.' Robin spoke, his tone, like normal, emotionless.

'Has Trigon been found?'

'We have search party's looking for him as we speak, the League has also volunteered their help.'

'What happened to Raven? While Trigon was attacking her body started to glow. Right as that started Kid Flash took her away from the seen, leaving Cyborg the only one to fight.'

'Using her powers for such extended amounts of time, left her weak, the glowing was a stage of recovery. Kid Flash had to take her out of harm way, he did, return to the fight after she was safe.' The footage cut off and returned too the normal broadcast.

'It is still unclear about the strange team but more answers will be brought in, within the next five days.'

"That lie is going to punch him in the gut." I spoke getting the man's attention towards me.

"Unless you get that under control, without my, or Wally's help." He responded. "Took you a while to get here."

"Tour's still not over." I responded. He turned the TV off but there was still the sound of the broadcast on the Ranger station's TV.

"I brought your swim suit, you might want to get changed, before the speedster decides to make a splash." I walked to the back seat where towels and my gray swimsuit were.

"Anywhere to change?" I asked, hoping to avoid going into the house with the bare in it.

"The house," he responded. I sighed and made my way inside, Garfield and Lea stood talking in the kitchen. Lea looked over at me when I stepped in, the news broadcast that Victor was watching played on a small TV resting on the counter. Lea had dark brown hair, light blue eyes and light tan skin.

"It seems that the Titan's have a secret they don't want the world to find." Lea spoke amused by the broadcast. "It's a shame that they're turning out to be just like the Justice League. A bunch of liars."

"You think too much." Garfield responded after taking a sip out of his cup. "Everyone needs to keep a secret to protect someone else."

"Secrets are the cause of fights." She stated. I backed out of the house, sighing and returning to the car.

"Not changing?" Victor asked me. I shook my head. "Suit yourself."

"I've swam in my cloths before." I rolled my eyes.

"And complained about it," he laughed and I made my way over too Bee and Lucky, who had finished setting up the table.

"You look like you haven't ate anything in days." Bee crossed her arms when she saw me walk over. "Don't give me the half demon BS. You need to eat."

"People eat when they need more energy to go through the day, I don't need the same amount of energy." I responded, sitting at the table. "Besides, anything I eat now will just come back out in a few hours." She frowned sitting next to me.

"His _visit_ is still bothering you," I sighed, hearing other people walk over.

"His existence bothers me..."

"Do you really hate me that much Ray?" Wally wrested his arm on my head, leaning dramatically against my back. I rolled my eyes. "I know I'm a pain in the ass, and I'm the hottest, fastest, most wonderful person in the world, but hating me doesn't change any of that."

"Your sister hasn't been eating." Bee stopped his rants before he could compliment himself some more. His arm lifted off my head.

"She does that when she's nervous." He responded, brother mode kicking in. "It's easy to tell why she's nervous, at least this time."

"Sound's like something you should see a doctor about." I turned to see everyone making their way to the food. Lea spoke while Garfield walked next to her with the Cheetah in his arms.

"She has," three voices spoke at the same time, in a sigh. Victor found a large ham sandwich that he shoved in his mouth after speaking, Wally sat next to me and Bee picked out some fruit to eat.

"It seems like Rachel is the ringleader in your group." Lucky spoke, she had started eating an apple.

"Nah, she's the innocent puppy that adopted us all, Richard was-" Wally started.

"And is," Victor commented absently.

"Our leader. But because he's not around Victor calls all the shots." Wally finished.

"Wile Wallace pretends that he knows how to play the guitar and pick up all the girls." Bee continued and the drama queen pretended to be shot. Everyone had some sort of food now, other than me. I watched as Wally and Victor started an eating contest with Garfield. Bee, Lea and Lucky were talking.

"Could I talk with you." Terra asked, tapping on my shoulder. I got up and followed her over to a large rock at the edge of the pool. She sat on top of it while I leaned against it.

She remained silent for a long while, looking over the water to see if there was anything new. "Did you see _that_ monkey while you were out today?" She asked. "Max's father, I mean."

"Yes," I responded. She nodded slowly.

"That monkey is like us, you know." She frowned. "Because of the accident, I mean. It's much like how most of us get our powers, in an accident."

"The monkey has a super power?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"I wouldn't call it a power, he's stronger than most monkey's, and by law he should be dead by now. But if you let him tell you his story... he speaks, any language, but talking to him is something you have to be prepared for." She looked at me. "He gave me a warning, when I spoke with him. He said to get far away from Gar when his emotions are taking over his body. Especially fear or pain or sorrow. It makes me wonder, did Gar also have a genetic malfunction when the lab exploded?"

"You think Garfield, is like us?"

"It's possible, and a few times, when I've stayed the night here, I heard animal cry's from his room, like a howl from a wolf in pain, or a lion's roar. I'd check his room, and that animal would be occupying his bed. But that could easily be because he like's to keep strange animals in his room and he doesn't have a window blocking them from entering and exiting. Once I was taking a walk in the moonlight, back when my powers were still unstable, I passed his room and there were three wolf's, a baby elephant and a large animal I can't recall sleeping in his room with him."

"He has no fear, does he?" She laughed at that.

"I wouldn't trust those animals sleeping in my room either." She looked back out at the water. "You're leader, Richard, is he by chance Richard Grayson?"

"Yeah."

"He used to live near here, his parents co-owned the reserve with Garfield's parents before they died. Then he was adopted and moved."

"I know." I responded. "He used to talk about his home and his summer visits to his friend's house across the country. I never heard everything he would tell us because when someone mentioned the world 'animal' I would try to hide."

"It must have been hard." She sighed.

"When your father was a demon sent to earth as punishment, you get used to it."

"And... how they treat you?"

"I'm the oldest of Seven. My dad want's me to join him and my brothers, to complete the _set_. When he started hunting me, it was to get information, but now he uses his ungodly tactics to try to force me to his side." I looked at the ground. "My brothers grew up on his side, and don't know a life without father's influence. But I do, and that's why I am punished, because I resist them."

"What _set_ would you be apart of?" Terra was looking at me.

"The Seven Deadly Sins."

* * *

**Hay everyone, thank's for reading this far and compared to the last two chapters, this one is short. Sorry. But Thank you all for sticking with the story this far and if it's not taking too much time out of your reading lives i want to know what you think of the spin off story (or story's, not sure what it's going to be yet.) Check out Minds of Another if you're up to it and want to see what's going through the minds of the other characters.**

**~Butterfly Arrows**


	7. Part One: Leon

_The sound of the hospital staff calling after me reached my ears only after I had ran a few blocks. I should stay there, stay safe, out of harms way in order to keep myself from harm, in order to keep, others from harm. I ran into someone, falling back. "Looks like todays our lucky day, the Freak without West." I scrambled to my feet, and started running again, back towards the hospital at first before I saw him looking for me. I sprinted into an ally._

"_Rachel!" He called after me, I hit a dead end, it will only be moments before he catches up to me now. I heard his footsteps and turned. "You're in no condition to be running." He stood in front of me. I looked away. He grabbed onto my arm, tugging on it to get me to follow._

"_Why do you keep coming after me!" I pushed his arm away from me as the redhead turned to look at me. He didn't respond and I faced him, his blue eyes just watched me, not giving me the answer I looked for. "dammit Wallace! It's not your job to look after me! Just go home!" I pushed him and started running. It would be pointless, he was one of the fastest boys in our school, he'd easily catch up to me. I didn't look back, it's pointless._

_My eyes were swelling up with tears, blurring my vision making it near impossible to see. I tripped, falling and making the pain in my arm worse. I heard some teens laughing. "There she is! Get that freak!" Freak, that's exactly what I am. I'm a freak, an abomination. I tried to stand, getting onto my knees before I was kicked in the side making me fall over._

"_Stay away from her!" Wally yelled, I heard his running steps come closer._

"_Get out of here, West is coming!" They started moving, too slow. I saw Wally punch someone in the jaw, hard enough to knock them down. I tried to get up when my arm, starting to glow red became uncovered from my shirt._

"_She's glowing!" Wally picked me up without another word, and he ran. His expression, again was unreadable, he was always good at that, making it hard for someone to tell what he was really thinking. He hid in an ally, setting me on the ground and kneeling in front of me._

"_Just because dad's not around doesn't mean he's still not here to protect you." He spoke, "I'm here, we're all we got Ray."_

"_You'll only get hurt the same way he did." I mumbled, he reached out, resting a hand on my forehead._

"_I will keep you safe, at least until you find someone who is stronger than me." His hand slid down to cover my eyes, like every time my skin glows red._

"Ray," Bee knocked on my door. I opened my eyes to see her standing in the doorway. "Dinner's ready, come out and get some food."

"I'm not hungry."

"Don't give me that bull." She stepped into the room more. "You've been sleeping ever since you got back with Gar today."

"It was a long day." I responded, sitting up and looking at my hands. "Max didn't want to stay away from me..."

"Look, I know you think you can handle everything on your own, but you can't. Sitting around not talking to anyone is going to hurt you in the long run." She crossed her arms. "Come to dinner, try to eat, and talk it out with Wally and Sparkie afterwards." I sighed.

"It's not something they can help with." I mumbled.

"Don't push the people that care about you, out of your life." She marched over and grabbed my arm. Dragging me out of bed.

"Let go! You don't understand!"

"No I don't." She kept dragging me, getting me out into the hall and near the staircase before I broke free of her grasp. She turned to me. "You're always doing this, pretending that nothing is wrong and letting yourself get abused for it."

"As long as I take that abuse, no one else will get in harms way."

"Physically, no. Emotionally, yes. Every time you cram up you hurt them both more than Trigon ever could." I turned away from her and started back towards my room. Ignoring her calling after me. Once I locked the door I went back over to my bed.

"_You moron!" I felt tears streaming down my cheeks as I sat by his bedside. He was covered in bandages, his eyes were closed but I couldn't tell if he was sleeping or pretending. "You stupid... why did you have to chase after Flash? You could've died! Then where would I go? You're the only family I have..." He lifted his hand and pressed it against my head, covering my eyes._

"_Sorry." He spoke, the only word I would hear from him for a long time, at least, directed towards me. He dropped his hand, I saw his bright blue eyes looking out the window._

"_You're in pain, I can heal you." I started to stand but he shook his head. I sat back in my chair, my hands resting on my lap. "Why not? You're hurting, I don't want that." He didn't respond, I looked down at my hands. It felt like ages before Bee came to take me back to our room._

"_You two were quiet for once, no fighting or anything." She commented. "We're you too worried to speak?"_

"_He wouldn't respond." My mouth felt dry._

"That doesn't sound like a pleasant dream." My eyes snapped open, I was facing the window.

"Let me sleep." I pulled the blankets closer as he sat on the edge of my bed. I sighed, there's no winning here.

"Bee is worried about you. Honestly, I am too."

"You're always worried about me." I watched the setting sun turn the sky into a rainbow of color.

"It's my job." He chuckled. "What's nagging at you?" I rolled onto my back, seeing the bush of red hair.

"Trigon's hunting." I responded. "What other reason would I have for being like this."

"You'd be pretty upset if your hair was cut." He responded. I smiled a little. "I also remember this time, when I was in the hospital-"

"And the dream returns." I groaned, he looked at me.

"Dreaming of me, I feel special." I punched his arm, lazily.

"You know more than anyone that my dreams are never happy."

"So you were dreaming about one of the many days I couldn't gather the courage to talk to you."

"You flat out ignored me for three months." I rolled back over.

"Funny, sounds like what you do all the time." He chuckled a bit. "But... honestly Ray, I didn't ignore you, I always had your back, and I will for as long as you need me."

"What spell are you under this time?"

"It's about time I tell you, isn't it." He sighed, laying back across my legs. The sky became another shade darker before he spoke again. "I made a promise with dad, on the night he died." My eyes widened. "Even without that, I would still look after you. But his last words were to tell me to protect you. And that he loved me and what not, but his final words, you know. So I'll keep chasing you and making a fool out of both us and Victor for as long as you still need my protection."

"Until I find someone stronger..." I repeated his words.

"Love does strange things." I didn't respond. "Here we are, nearly twenty one, and still acting like kids." He laughed, I closed my eyes, smiling.

"You're a fool to belive in love."

"We're all fools." He agreed. I listened to his breathing for a while, the only other sound in the room I could hear was my own breathing. "I met a strange woman, not too long before we came here."

"Did she actually take you up on a date offer?" I mumbled.

"No, but she had a diamond marking on her forehead," I closed my eyes. "And she looked exactly like the woman on your dresser."

"congratulations, you met my mother." I mumbled, half sleeping. "Next time you see her, tell her that I hate her."

"Don't lie to yourself," he got off the bed and started towards the door. "Night Ray."

"Moron..." I could tell he was smirking as he opened the door and left. I wont be able to sleep now. I sighed, standing I made my way over to the glass door, I opened it and stepped outside. I kept my hands in my shorts pocket and walked over to where the near invisible gate ended. I could see the electrical current moving along the wall.

"Long time no see, Sis." I heard the calming voice of Leon. I turned, looking at the roof of the building. "Can you feel it? The sweet wind of romance heading your way."

"Why are you here." I spoke to him.

"Why wouldn't I?" He jumped down, landing near my door. "After all, my big sister is finally falling in love."

"I'd deny that but when it comes to that area, you're the expert." I responded. I heard footsteps and looked over to see Garfield walking over, seemingly ignoring the fact that a stranger was here.

"He wont remember any of this tomorrow." Leon spoke to me. "Right now, he's just following his deepest desire. Such a sin." Garfield stopped, across from me with only the barrier between us. I could see that his eyes are clouded over.

"We only met a few days ago, it's extremely unlikely he has any feelings for me." I spoke out, knowing my words are waisted.

"Such a big ego." Leon laughed. "Just like you. You know all I want is for you to fall in love and run off into the sunset, never having to worrie about the horrors of our reality."

"Keep dreaming." I faced him, turning my back on Garfield. Leon smirked, closing the door.

"With me here, all you're senses are amplified. You know that, of course." I felt the brush of fingers trace my arms. "Your emotions, will be out of balance. Well, everyone's will be. It's my gift to the world." Lips brushed against my right shoulder.

"You're the cruelest out of all of us." I stated, he laughed.

"Only because you cannot see this path for yourself." Arms wrapped around my waist, and Garfield gently kissed my neck. "I'll be staying for a while, hope you don't mind. All the commotion at home is quite bothersome, taking a vacation is worth it."

"I suppose you brought Edward with you." I spoke, he smiled.

"That boy is a doll, don't you think. He looks much like you, well, sharing the same mother does that." My eyes widened as one of Garfield's hands started trailing up under my shirt. "It was Arella's idea for us to come here, actually, she came along. But they won't be arriving till morning. I thought you deserved a warning."

"Stop." Leon smirked and Garfield backed away.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He pulled open my door allowing the barrier to return, "you're going to want that again."

"Some people can control themselves." I spoke to him, he jumped high, landing on the roof and waving.

"Later."


	8. Part Two: Mindset

Part Two: Garfield

My body was in a endless stream of numb pain this happened every so often when I woke up. Those nights felt as if I hadn't gotten a minute of sleep, and usually, like today, I would wake up at an ungodly hour. Two in the morning. I looked out to the reserve trying to recall the dream I had, the girl in it had peaked my interest. That much I could recall the most. I couldn't see her, not entirely, she had long hair, the color was shielded by the darkness of the moonless night. She was leading me somewhere, and when I finally reached her... I could feel the invisible trail of her small hands along my skin, an aroma filled my nose and my heart started pounding.

I brought my arm over my head and covered my eyes. I'm going to need a cold shower. I let myself bath in the pain my body was in for a few more moments, making sure I was awake and I hadn't fallen into another dream. That's happened plenty of times before. I lifted my head and slowly got out of bed, wandering over to my dresser where Max's bed lay vacant. He's probably wandering outside, the window to my room had been removed a few years ago after I woke up multiple times with it falling apart with shattered glass all over the floor. I grabbed some cloths and made my way to my private bathroom.

I rested my head on the bathroom wall as the water soaked my skin. The dream was not going to leave me alone. That much I decided when I felt the ghost of her touch for the third time since stepping into the shower. The beginning of the dream, where I was chasing her, I felt as if I was a predator and she was the prey, she would run and I would try to catch her. But when I finally did catch her, our roles switched and I was her pray. I shook my head and tried to clear the thought from my mind.

My mind decided to think about girls, a change from the dream, but not too much of one. I was comparing the girls I knew to the one in the dream. Seeing if any of them could match her figure. Bee didn't have long hair, and the girl from the dream was shorter than her. Lucky was to thin, Argent could be an option, but no the last time I saw her she cut her hair short. Terra could have been the girl nut we've tried dating and it was just way to awkward for that.

Rachel.

I mentally cursed myself after her name popped into my mind. She does fit the part, but why in hells name would I be dreaming of something like that with her? I stepped out of the shower and started to dry off when a thought came to me. What exactly happened last night? I remember stepping out of my room to try to find Max after he ran off with my favoret book. I was going to read that. I started walking and seeing Rachel standing in the safety of her barrier, and then nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as if the rest of the night had just, vanished.

After dressing, I wandered out of my room to see the book returned to my night stand. Apparently I had found Max and gotten my book. Sighing I wandered out of my room and made my way to the kitchen to get a drink. I had waisted maybe an hour again. That still left a while before I actually started doing anything. As I started to open the kitchen door I heard Rachel and Victor talking quietly. "So the kid and player are coming to visit?" Victor asked as if she had told him a long and semi-pointless story to get that response.

"Yes." Rachel sighed. I shouldn't be eavesdropping. "I'm glad that Ed's coming but Leon just... sometimes I wish I could push him into a grave and bury him alive. When he showed up last night, he spoke such nonsense but..."

"The truth." Victor finished. She didn't respond. I pushed open the door getting the two to look over. I faked a yawn.

"Morning." I greeted lazily. Victor nodded to me and Rachel watched me, she wanted to say something but wouldn't. I opened the fridge and grabbed a can of soda. Slowly I wandered out of the room, leaving them to the conversation they were having moments ago. I walked up the stairs and made my way to the roof, half expecting to run into someone else but finding it empty. I sat down against the garden rim, we grew potatoes up here.

I opened the can and brought it to my lips before noticing a boy, appearing in front of me. He stared at me, and I brought the can away from my face. It was silent and I could tell that he was sizing me up. Slowly from the horizon I could see the sun 's first ray's appear. The boy sat, cross legged in front of me, and I saw the color of his short hair. Dark blue, just like Rachel's. He kept watching me, waiting for me to make the first move. "Normally people show up by cars." I commented, before finally taking a drink of my soda. He laughed, his childlike voice making it sound like bells and I wondered if this was actually a boy or a girl.

"Normally people freak out when I appear in front of them." He smiled. "Glad you're not one of them." He watched me some more and I got a feeling as if he wasn't the only one there. I set my soda down and rested my arms on my knees.

"Glad? You don't even know me." I spoke and he kept his smile.

"I know you, I know quite a bit about you." He laid back and watched the stars slowly start to vanish. "You're Garfield Mark Logan. You parent's died when you were young in a chemical explosion, Bruce Wayne is your foster parent, Richard Grayson is your foster brother and closest friend. You have Nyctophobia but you pretend it's nothing. Your body's under constant stress and you feel like your changing, currently, but not at this moment, you're having problems controlling your temper, easily snapping when no one's around and you feel agonizing pain in your chest. Sleeping doesn't even get rid of the pain, but you refuse to tell anyone for fear of being sent away from here. The only place that keeps you sane."

"Okay you know me." I mumbled getting another laugh out of him. "Who are you." The sun was starting to rise and I could see that he had on shorts much like mine, his skin was unnaturally pale like Rachel's.

"I'm the reincarnation of one of the Seven Deadly Sins." He responded. "Father call's me Envy. Mother call's me Edward, Edward Ross." My eyes went wide a bit. This is one of Rachel's brothers. "Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of hurting Rachel. She's my big sis." He sat up and his eyes were dark blue. "But I'm not here for you to get to know me." I watched him stand. "I'm delivering a warning. My father likes to _collect_ people with uncontrollable powers, he might come to collect you." He turned and vanished into thin air letting the words he spoke sink in.

Collect me? I don't have powers... I picked up the can of soda and took another sip. What had posesed that kid to tell me anything? How had he known so much about me. I've never told anyone of my fear of the dark, let alone the pain my body's constantly in. Could he read thoughts or memories or something.

I saw the force field materialize in front of me. Rachel must be outside her room. Slowly I stood and walked over to the edge of the roof, she stood in a black tank top and gray shorts, in front of her was the boy. I couldn't hear what they were talking about but she seemed happy to see him. I started back towards the door leading back to the house and allowed my thoughts to roam freely again. I could tell with just a glance that the two were related, unlike when her other brother was here. He looked nothing like the girl.

I placed my hand on the door handle ready to open it but not moving. How did he know so much about me? The thought bothered me. Sure my parent's death was none but mainly to the fact that they worked for the government and were the top geneticist in the world. I was mentioned a little in that accident saying that I had survived with minor injuries. A few weeks later it was announced that Bruce had taken me into his care that's it. Nothing else was posted on my life.

I looked at the hand holding the doorknob the tan pigment was becoming lighter again. This happened at least once a year even though I'm always in the sun, working. Sure once a year I go down north to check on the reserve that held the polar animals, but even then it's never long enough for me to loose skin pigment.

My thoughts rounded back to what the boy said. _I'm a reincarnation of one of The Seven Deadly Sins. Father call's me Envy. _Does that mean Rachel is also a sin? What does he mean by reincarnation of one?

Envy is jealousy to the point of wanting to be in that person's shoes


	9. Part Two: Flying

"You'll hurt yourself up there!" I heard Rachel's voice call out when I stood from the top of the barn roof. I looked down and saw her sitting on the hood of the Jeep Terra named L. J. E. Loudest Jeep Ever. She had a book on her lap and her camera resting next to her. I waved, giving a small smile she wouldn't see from this distance.

"Wouldn't be the first time." I called back to her before turning to look at Victor who was helping me reshingle a part of the roof. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead and looked up at the sun, it was directly overhead.

"You do this once a year?" He asked me. I nodded and watched as he stood. "How can you handle being in this sun for so long?"

"I live out here," I shrugged. "Im used to being out in this heat. Want to take a break?"

"Yeah, need a lift down?"

"I'm gonna get some more work done," he nodded and carefully got off the roof.

After another half hour I heard Rachel call for me, I stood and turned to see her still sitting on the jeep and Bee standing with a tray of food.

"You need to eat." Bee called.

"I'll be down in a minute." I called back before putting my hammer back in my belt and making my way over to the edge of the roof. I found the latter where I left it. I saw a car park and a door opened right away, letting a young boy jump out and run directly over to Rachel. She let him hug her and and they started talking.

"You seem to Envy the child." A voice spoke from behind me. "For having Rachel's attention." I started to turn but my body froze. "No, you don't need to see me, you just need to awaken. The sooner that happens, the sooner you and her will be skipping through meadows together, holding hands and slapping my father in the face." A hand rested on my back. "Besides, it's not like your inner monster will let you die, it Lust's for life, love and power, much like myself." I was pushed. My body started falling off the roof. This wasn't the first time I've fell from this hight, I've broken a few bones from it but I've never died. But this was the first time someone's pushed me.

"Garfield!" Rachel's voice called out almost in panic. Her voice reminded me of a song bird, not just any song bird, but a Raven.

My body started to feel light, a sensation I've felt several times before. Seconds later, I was rising instead of falling. I was now level with the roof of the ranch and slowly decreasing in altitude. My head was spinning by the time I landed on the ground, now feeling heavy as if I gained a hundred or more pounds. I dropped to my knees, I could tell that I was next to the jeep but the world was spinning, I wasn't sure if it was to my left or right.

"Gar," Bee caught me before I collapsed. My vision blacked out and my head slumped into her chest.

"Ed get Arella." Rachel spoke quickly, I could her the panic in her voice. The foot steps ran off, I tried to move away from Bee.

"You're not moving yet." Bee ordered me. "You just fell off a building, turned into a bird, landed, turned human again and collapsed."

"I-I didn't fall." I groaned out, not making any comments to the turning into a bird part. For some reason, that made sense in my mind. How else would I be able to survive the many times I've fallen off that roof. Unlike this time I would completely black out. The black I was seeing started to form shapes and regane color. I heard foot steps heading towards us, one running while the other walked. "I was pushed."

"Leon, you don't push people off buildings," a woman's voice spoke out. I could see the outline of Rachel, kneeling next to us, a boy stood behind her and two people were walking over.

"You pushed him?" Rachel stood, turning to face one of the two walking.

"He needed motivation," the boy spoke.

"You don't push people off of building for your own amusement!"

"Mode-I-Va-Tion." The boy repeated. "His powers were supressed and he needed a shock to get them out. You jump off of waterfalls three times as large as that."

"This is different!" One of the two stopped while the other stepped next to me and knelt down. A hand was pressed to my forehead and the dizziness wet away, when I opened my eyes again I saw a woman, who looked almost exactly like Rachel. Her hair was shorter and she looked older, maybe in her late 30's. Bee helped me stand, my legs were still weak.

"Rachel could you have not healed him?" The woman turned to the girl. Rachel stopped the fight with Leon and hesitantly turned to the woman.

"She was scared mom." Ed the young boy spoke. "Still scared." Arella glanced at the boy before turning her attention back to Rachel.

"Well, you're making some progress, with your fear, you can stand here and not run."

"That's extremely rude to say." Bee spoke out, I looked at her, she had her arms crossed.

"Bee, it's nothing." Rachel mumbled. Ed moved in front of Rachel protectively, I recognized him as the boy from this morning.

"Arella lets go get some coffee." Leon spoke, the woman followed him back inside without another word.

"I hate her." The boy mumbled when they couldn't hear him.

"You're just mad." Rachel mumbled. The look on her face reminded me of a lost puppy, I felt the same shift over my body as when I fell, and the ground was growing closer. A whimper escaped my lips before I fell onto my side as the shifting feeling once again washed over me. I was panting, I struggled to push myself off the ground only to collapse. Edward kneeled next to me and I looked up at him.

"It must suck not knowing whats going on to your own body." He spoke in almost a whisper. His hand pressed to my forehead and the pain slowly started to vanish. When he took his hand away he helped me sit up. I noticed that Rachel had moved several feet away, a look of both fear and worry in her eyes. Bee was frowning I couldn't tell what her thoughts were.

"We're going to have to take him to DC with us." Be spoke getting Rachel to look at her.

"I'll contact Reta." She spoke quietly before walking towards the house.

Lust is an intense Desire.


	10. Part Two: Animal

A jet came around supper time and it held a variety of people that were apparently staying the night. Victor told me they would all pay the night fee, but that's not what bothered me. "There aren't enough rooms." I spoke with Lucky as she entered the kitchen for the third time to bring out another meal. She rolled her eyes.

"Almost every single one of your new visitors have super powers." She spoke as if it were nothing. "Robin and Nightwing not included. They'll either sleep on the jet or outside, or share a room." One of the cooks placed a few steaming meals on her tray. "They only thing you'll have to worry about is if we have enough food for them. There's twenty young adult/teens, the Doom Patrol- in which only two of them can actually eat, and three little kids. Pluse the workers that live here, Rachel and her friends, and Rachel's unexpected family visitors. "This weeks food bill is going to be higher than most." I sighed as she wandered back into the dinning hall. To counter her statement, we're also getting in more money because of the people staying here. I leaned against the counter, trying to escape all the madness from earlier. My fingers drummed on the wooden surface as I waited for the pink haired girl to reenter the room.

"You know, maybe if you helped me. Like a good boss, we could get more than a few sentences of conversation in before I head out again." The pink haired girl wandered in again, placing a few slips of orders onto the counter.

"What happens if I accidentally turn into a animal?" I asked her. "I was told not to do anything, workwise. My condition is unstable." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Yes, the man who changes into a mouse at the mention of the word." Just like she said, I morphed the second 'mouse' left her lips. My body quickly turning back to normal after I fell onto the floor. I rubbed my head. "You should see the Hospital about that."

"It's on the other side of the country." I stated. "I can't leave my animals alone. That's like, abandoning them." I used the counter to help me stand as she was handed more plates.

"You seriously need to look into getting me some help out here." She ordered before walking back out into the dinning hall. This time I followed her out the door and made my way through the crowded room to the entrance hall where Bee stood making arrangements with a woman with ling curly red hair and a purple and lack dress on.

"So currently there are five open rooms in the ranch, and we have two rooms that aren't normally used out in the barn. And about twenty seven here for the night. Pluse we have five couches and a few chairs in the livingroom."

"Nightwing and Starfire will share a room, I honestly don't know where Robin ran off too. He might be staying out in the city till tomorrow morning. My team and I will stay in the jet mostly because of Mento's lack of trust for everyone." Bee nodded. "The kids will stay with Raven like always. Thunder and Lightning prefer to be in the sky. That leaves four rooms."

"If I remember correctly Argent and Wonder Girl get along well so they can share a room. Kole and Gnarrk can stay in the barn, Gnarrk can't handle civilized things too well. Más y Menos and Pantha can have another room. Kilowat needs his own space so he can use the second Barn room. Jericho and Ravenger are siblings,"

"Ravenger won't share a room with Jericho. She's best sleeping alone or on the roof." The woman spoke. I leaned against the counter listening to them. "Speedy needs his own room."

"So does Herald." Bee commented absently while writing down the sleeping arrangements. "Everyone else is either on the couch or in the jet."

"With little conflict I hope." The woman sighed then looked at me. "Garfield, correct?" I nodded. She held out her hand and I shook it. "Elasti-Girl." She smiled sweetly. "Co-leader of the Doom Patrol."

"Nice to meet you." I greeted. "Bee, Lucky needs help in the kitchen if you have time to spare."

"I would think so," Bee stepped out from behind the counter and made her way to the dinning hall.

"So, it seems that you have an ability like most of your current visitors." The woman spoke. I turned my attention back to her and nodded unsurely. "Rachel said it had something to do with animals, and that's her weak point, as you already know." She motioned me to follow her. "A few years ago, back on one of the first missions Rachel was sent on, she ended up lost and in the care of me and my team for a few months, until we were able to contact the Titans and they sent out to get her. I had a son, with my husband, who -like you- had powers with animals, though in a different way. He could communicate with them and get them to do as he wanted. It came in handy when we were out on missions and needed a spy, but he rarely saw real action. Rachel thought that me and my husband could help you develop your powers, get them under control at least. If she had more knowledge of both animals and your power I'm sure she would've helped you, but please don't think poorly of her for keeping her distance with this.

"She's not scared of you, but of what you can turn into. Considering you've been helping her overcome that fear, I belive that your new found ability will be more helpful than harmful in the near future." I nodded and I found myself in front of a large jet where a robot man was wandering around inside moving things to create beds and what not.

"Your son-"

"He passed on half a year ago. We were ambushed by the Brotherhood of Evil, and he was in the wrong spot in the wrong time." I stopped walking as she went to climb aboard the jet. She turned to look at me, giving me a small smile. "Sacrifice is something you have to learn to live with... I'm sorry, you're not used to things like this, not around here at least. Common, I'll introduce you to the team." I followed her onto the jet, that was twice as large inside as it was outside. I had to stop to take in the entire look.

"Holograms." A large metal man said as he moved a couch across the room. "This isn't actually a jet, it just looks like one."

"Garfield, this is Cliff Steele. Or, as the world knows him, Robotman." Elasti-Girl introduced. "In the back, sleeping on a chair is Lary Tranor, or Negitiveman."

"Rita some reports came in on the Brotherhood." Cliff set the couch doen near a door. "Steve wont tear his eyes off of them." Elasti-Girl frowned, and motioned me to follow her into the room behind the door. It was a simple control room, there were computers and a stirring wheel as well as some chairs. A man, with short messy black hair covered by a metal helmit sat in a chair near one of the computers. In his hand he had a stack of papers, double sided. I could see some of the printed words.

_Searching for animal intelligence that has been sending reports on Ga-_ The paper was flipped. _Heading south east towards Georgia U. S. A. Looking for Lo-_ "Steve, we did not come here to work on the Brotherhood." I looked at Rita as she crossed her arms glaring at the man, he lowered the papers to glance at her.

"I'm just reading." He responded. "It's not like we have to do anything until tomorrow."

"We do have something to do, remember what Rachel asked?" The man set the papers on the counter next to him.

"Besides run Justice League arrons like lap dogs?" He mumbled and I felt the shift over my body once again. By now I recognized it as transforming. My control on it, none. The man's attention turned to me as I turned human again. "A subconscious transformation." He stood and walked over to me, looking much taller than he should considering I was sitting on the ground. He knelt next to me, "I'm going to ask you a series of questions, you have the option to answer them." He told me. "Forst: what's the smallest animal you can think of?" I went to respond but my body was transforming before I could manage a word. He kept his eyes trained on me as I shrunk, and returned to my normal form moments later. "A Marmadasthred Snake." He spoke, getting the answer he was looking for. "Not many people know about that one, easily mistaken for a worm.

"Careful Steve." Rita warned quietly but her message didn't seem to get to him, he asked me a few more animal related questions, first water mammal I could think of: dolphin. First predator I could think of: lion. Largest animal: my body didn't change for that, whether it be because of the space in the room or limits of this power, neither I, nor the man could figure out. I was able to speak that name though. Mammoth. My body was starting to hurt from transforming so much in a few short minutes.

"What's your name?" Steve asked but spoke before I could respond. "Don't answer that. I'll just take a look-"

"Steve!" Rita grabbed his attention and he looked over at her, standing and backing away. "Slow down. You're going to overwhelm him." She paused a moment, letting the moment of relaxation kick in before talking again. "Garfield, this is my husband, Steve Dayton, or as the team calls him, Mento. He's able to control things and read with his mind. He's going to help you control your powers while I will train your body to be able to handle each power. The other members of the Doom Patrol will help."

"Control meaning changing on will and the speed of your transformations." Steve added in quietly.

"Over all, you should have basic control over your power by the time we leave in five days."

Steve started talking, sounding more of a leader now, than a man talking casually to his friends. "For the next five days, when you're not working, sleeping or eating, you will be here training. We start now." I saw his eyes glow blue before my mind went blank.

Greed is a desire for everything you come across.


	11. Part Two: Ropes

We left the ranch early the next morning, the flight to DC wasn't long but in order for everyone to get there on time, not including me, Lucky or the Doom Patrol. (Lucky tagged along because she didn't feel like being alone at he Reserve, she said that the other workers could handle the job.) We were about half way there and it was seven in the morning. The jet's appearance had changed into what it should look like, basically a floating platform with an open deck and the control room under it, as well as a bathroom and a few bedrooms.

I sat on the couch Cliff had moved yesterday with Rachel, Steve, Bee, Terra (who surprised me by saying she worked for the Justice Leauge as well) Robin, Nightwing and Starfire. I was currently eating breakfast, which is why I'm not training. Yesterday, in the few hours I did train with the mental man, I was able to transform at will, though the amount of time in each transformation was limited. Rachel handed me some fruit, and I thanked her.

There was small chat around the table, Nightwing, Rachel and Terra were talking about what happened on the day that she diapered. Starfire and Steve were exchanging war story's from their travels around the world, or in Starfire's case Jump City. Bee and Robin were sharing information about each of the Titan's they didn't know. "Gar isn't a Titan, he just developed powers so Mentos is training him."

"Aqualad is can basically control aquatic animal's minds."

"Terra can control earth."

"Harold can make portal's that would be amazing to surf through."

"Jason don't..." I heard Nightwing mumble under his breath. Starfire giggled at his little comment and handed him a tray of eggs after he asked for them. I bit into an apple, and looked around seeing a lot of super-human teenagers and young adults wrestling and using the training field around the platform. Some were even flying in the air racing each other.

"Raven." Robin spoke loudly, getting the rest of the conversation around the table to quiet. I looked at the boy as Rachel looked up at him, I kind of found her superhero name ironic, considering she's afraid of animals. "Can I try surfing again?" He asked anxiously. Nightwing rolled his eyes.

"Have you gotten better at real surfing sense I last saw you?" She asked, taking the hood of her dark blue cape off of her head. I personally liked her uniform, though it was quite revealing under the cape. She had on a long black dress with slits on both sides up to her hip revealing her legs, long-sleeved. A gold and ruby red circled belt and bracelets and black boots. Robin, had the genaric Robin uniform from when the first Robin, (now Nightwing) was still Robin. Black cape, green pants, red shirt and a mask. And a fancy utility belt with all sorts of gadgets that I will never be able to name. Accept for the grappling hook and pepper spray. It comes in handy when fighting robbers.

"Yes." Robin responded.

"Nightwing?" She turned to the man dressed in nearly all black, except for the blue bird on his chest, he also had on a mask.

"No." He responded, "but let him try, if he falls it's his own fault."

"Alright." She stood. "Star." The redhead alien girl floated out of her seat and started flying into the air as Rachel followed, her into the sky. Robin stood and took out his grappling hook.

"Remember what I told you before." Nightwing said to his puple.

"Don't look down." Robin stated. "Don't let go." He mumbled shooting the hook directly above his head, I saw the wire catch and he was lifted above the deck. From where I sat I could see Raven almost clearly and Starfire, in her short purple skirt and shirt was a speck. Robin was swung forwards and the grappling wire dropped as a black orb appeared and he grabbed onto it.

"I remember her using that before." Steve spoke, turning his attention to Nightwing and Bee.

"I've only seen her use it in action once before," Bee spoke. "She usually only surfs with Nightwing considering he came up with the idea back when he was Robin. They used to use it for quick transportation when he couldn't get to his bike or when he was jumping off a large building."

"We didn't have a name for it, until Jason saw me and her use it. He said it reminded him of surfing waves." Nightwing spoke as the black orb started moving. "It's not hard to keep on the disk, but..." the disk shot off at a speed our little cheetah (named Roar thanks to Wally,) at home wasn't able to reach yet. It moved in a wave like motion, and I could see why he calls it surfing, but at the same time, there were flips which I assumed would be useful in battles. "The only problem is Robin is afraid of falling. When he looks down, he let's go. Not because of the hight, but because he thinks that he's going to fall."

"Another problem." Wally appeared behind the couch and table. "Rachel's unstable at the moment." He spoke. "And I can't fly." I saw Steve glance at me but he returned his attention to the acrobatics above us. "Star can only catch one of them."

"Unstable?" Terra asked the question that was forming in my head.

"Remember when she was glowing red?" Wally spoke. She nodded. "When that happens, any energy she's using goes away, it's like a power nullifier, depending on the situation."

"I could fly, if I had any rocks." Terra spoke, after letting that idea sink in.

"A lot of young hero's on this plane can fly as well." Steve spoke absently. "But I assume touching her will burn anyone that she's not expecting?"

"Dono," Wally answered. "Besides my dad, I'm the only one that has ever taken her out of one of those states." He glanced at me. "If she falls, could you catch her?" He asked.

"I don't know." I answered honestly. "So far we've only been able to get a few moments of transformation at a time."

"He's not ready." Steve mumbled. "Unless..." he sounded like he was going to go on a long rant about something important when Starfire landing on the ground carrying Robin and grabbed everyone's attention. Robin rubbed the spot on his arm where Starfire was holding onto him. A red mark was starting to appear on his arm.

"He did the falling." Starfire spoke in her strange way. "And looking down." Rachel was still in the air, looking south, the direction we had left from. "Raven is doing the thinking. While we were talking she said she felt something... disturb the peace. I did not know what she ment but it seemed important."

"Just let her think," Nightwing responded. "As for you."

"I blame the flipping." Robin defended himself before any punishment could be delivered. Rachel landed on the deck and went directly downstairs. "Besides, we're just about to land for DC and go to the stupid conference."

"I honestly, don't miss those days." Steve spoke giving a small chuckle before turning to me. "Time to start training." He told me seeing as I wasn't eating anymore. I followed him to the middle of the ship where a training area that some of the other Titan's were using was set up. I could feel my head beating with the strums of my heart, something about leaving my home didn't feel right at the moment.

My animal instincts were telling me to head back home. But at the current time and at our current location, we were miles away from home. States away even. Steve's eyes started glowing blue again and the rush of him entering my mind washed over me. My senses went blind and it felt as if my body collapsed but I know that I was still standing.

Training didn't end until the meeting ended. By then it was late, maybe midnight and my body felt extremely tired. But hay, I was able to stay transformed for longer than a half hour. That might become helpful at some point in the future. We also discovered that there was no size limit on my transformations, I can become anything from a plankton to a T-rex. When I have the time for myself, I'm going to see if I can turn into one of those giant eagles from Lord Of The Rings.

I ate as everyone was returning to the ship. Meeting some new people as it happened. Harold, Speedy, Jericho, his sister Ravenger. It wasn't until the last few members walked on, nearly twenty minutes later than the others did I notice the few absent Titans. Starfire was using her glowing hands as lights to guide Wally, Robin and Bee back aboard the platform. "Terra never went to the meeting." Bee spoke to me, landing on the ground from her flying position. "She left with us, but slipped out of the crowd."

"Are the others looking for her?" I asked, I noticed Wally and Robin exchange a glance.

"She's not our biggest concern at the moment." Bee responded awkwardly.

"Rachel's been kidnapped." Robin spoke, letting the words slowly sink into the air. At first the words didn't process, Rachel's been... kidnapped. Slowly I remembered the fuzzy memoire's of a few days ago when Rachel's brother came to hunt her down, and the timid story she told me about her family.

_They tortured me to get information that Rudolph didn't have. I was put in a cage with animals that attacked me." Her voice hesitated. "This happened multiple times throughout my life, but the more recent ones were to get me to join my father and brothers in their gang."_

Sloth is physical or spiritual laziness


	12. Part Two: Fear

The trail of her sent, mixed in with the morning mildew and hundreds of people that walked the street every night, were surprisingly easy to follow. In my basset hound form. When the sun started rising after a long night of waiting for Victor and Nightwing to return from their search, they came up with little news on Rachel's current whereabouts. It turns out that whoever her kidnapper was, knew to get rid of her communicator, which could be used to track her, not only that, they knew to get rid of her belt, and cloak, both also had tracking devices in them. Wally assured me that most Super-hero uniforms had tracking devices in them so that they could be kept on record, even when they were out of commission.

I asked Victor if I could try to help, by finding her by scent. He wasn't sure about it at first but allowed me to transform and sniff a few things, and I found her sent, intoxicating. To say the least. As soon as Victor showed me the way to the Justice League HQ on earth, because they also have one up in the sky, I transformed once again and found her more recent scent trail almost immediately. Before I was able to take off, Victor handed me a communication ear-phone (with a tracker in it) and told me to call if there was any trouble at all. After that I set off, as a dog, and found myself making my way through an underground tunel way, that smell horribly, not including Rachel's sent line. The tunnel so far was a straight line. And at the rate I've been moving, I'm going to run out of transformation time before I even get close to the end. I shifted back to my human form and leaned against the semi-dirty wall to catch my breath. Shifting isn't exhausting, but all that running I've been doing, was.

I closed my eyes for a moment and listened to the sounds of water dropping into the sewer, as well as the annoying beep from the tracking device. I knelt down and let my legs rest a little. Running was exhausting. Even if it was only a little ways. I heard quiet footsteps from a ways away and passively wondered if it could've been one of Rachel's brothers. Maybe even Rachel herself. I hoped for the later option. I heard talking, a voice, echoed through the corridor. "You did wonderfully my puple." The man's voice struck a chill into my sides. "Allowing them to think you were on their side, gathering information on each and every one of those pathetic Titans."

"Thank you, Deathstroke." Terra's voice echoed into the halls and into my mind. Terra freed Deathstroke. Terra betrayed everyone. My mind screamed at me to go and attack her, but I had something else I needed to do. Rachel was still missing, porbribly being tortured with abused animals again, and I was the only one who can find her. That defiantly puts a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I took a deep breath and transformed again, the different scents of the room hightning and allowing me to pick out the lavender and vanilla candle's Rachel smelled of, I was running again. Heading off towards who-knows-where to be a knight in shinning armor that I wasn't.

The trail led through the sewers for another fifteen minutes before reaching a new outside street just outside the city. I was on my second animal break now, looking at the difference in scenery from the city of DC and the empty street I was on now. There was a lot of grass, nothing like back home, I was actually in a dessert... but I kept the reserve well irrigated. The sound of static entered my ear and I could hear the voice of Victor contacting me from the floating platform the Doom Patrol traveled in.

"You're quite a bit away from the city," he spoke. Currently I was wishing I had remembered to pack a water bottle. "Do you need me to send any backup?"

"I haven't found her yet." I told him. "To get her this far, she must've been unconscious."

"Trigon has another way to paralyze her." Victor spoke. "Do you remember what Wally said yesterday morning?"

"Vaguely."

"When her skin glows red her powers go away, well not all of her powers, she can still since emotions but that's something adopted from her mother. But she's basically rendered weak at that point, and if Jaremy is there with his snake..."

"Frozen." I mumbled.

"Don't do anything too reckless." Victor warned me. "We're heading back to the reserve, call as soon as you find her."

"Will do." The sound from the communicator went dead and I stood, allowing my legs another second of rest before once again transforming, this time into a cheetah, though their sense of smell wasn't as good as the basset hound, they moved much faster. I only took a moment to adjust to the new form before sprinting along the road. I hadn't noticed it much, but I could 'see' a line of trails, it was weird. My mind took the sent and changed it into a visible path to follow, making it much easier to run with.

I allowed the idea of just running to the path of a clear violet line take over my mind and my speed increased. I could tell that running like this will make my joints ache later, but I really don't give a shit about that. I've spent my entire life living around animals and watching them grow, I can finally experience being one.

It was... mystical.

A cloaked figure appearing a few feet in front of me made me stumble to a halt. The figure wasn't large, and from under the cloak it looked to be a girl. Without uncovering the skin, it motioned me to follow, carefully lifting off the ground and hovering above the ground before floating backwards slowly. I moved slowly at first, wondering if I was hallucinating. As my speed grew so did the cloaked person's. They led me for what seemed like an hour, but in reality was only about five minutes. Finally stopping at a abandoned house on the outskirts of a town.

I transformed and looked at the charming building. Strangely, it looked new for having clearly been left alone for a number of years. The grass in the yard was long, but looked as if it had been cut about a month ago due to the need to see around the corner street. The building was small, looked to have maybe two rooms, a bathroom, livingroom and kitchen. It was a brick house, with a black roof. A for sale sign was in the yard but the sign itself had been vandalized and used for target practious. There was a stone pathway leading from the front door to the sidewalk where the cloaked figure now stood.

The hood was lifted from his head revealing a boy that looked nearly exactly like Edward, only when he turned to look at me he had four, glowing red eyes.

I wasn't sure if he was glaring at me, or if it was just how he looked. "I hate you." He spoke, not letting me ask any questions. "I hate that you can waltz into her life and become her hero. How you're carefree even after everything you've gone through." He pressed a hand to his forehead. "It's unfair. But nothing is fair for my kind. I can't be here to help you get to her, hell, I'm struggling to get you here now. This is as far as I can take you... before Trigon's little spell turns me full demon again."

He dropped his arm and started walking towards me, slowly, as if I was watching a marriage, he became Edward. "Buy you, you're not like me or my brothers or Rachel." He continued speaking. "Trigon's spell, isn't going to work on you. So you're the only one, currently here, that can get her out of that house." He sighed and allowed the hood to cover his face. "You might want to hurry, Trigon isn't currently here... and Jaremy is off to who knows where. Leaving Sebastien to babysit and he's extremely lazy, being Sloth and everything. I bet if you told him that you're taking Rachel, he wouldn't give a fight against it." He flickered like a hologram from Starwars. "If you take too long, you'll get stuck here too. For a while at least. Nice tracking device by the way, they'll know where you are without the moron's noticing that you have it."

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm still at the ranch, using a special mirror to contact you. Though the reception is horrible and I'm running out of time. Leon say's he's sorry for pushing you off a building and that he will never do anything like that again if you save Rachel." He paused and mumbled the next few lines. "And become her hero." Ed rolled his eyes at that statement. "Hurry up, the sooner you save her the sooner you can stop the madness that's been going on here." His image vanished before I could question him further. I looked at the house for a long moment before slowly walking to the door and opening it, finding the halls lit. Even in my human eyes I could see Rachel's trail in this house, it filtered through the house but the most distinct one led to a door across from where I stood.

I closed the door and followed the newest trail, the second door led downstairs. Walking down the steps, I found the light dimmed and what seemed like a few hundred cages lined along the walls, the largest cage, at the other end of the room, held the girl I was looking for. I tapped the communicator on my ear, hoping I could just send a signal giving my location without talking too much. I started towards her cage.

"You are stupid to follow Envy's advice." A sleepy voice dragged out. I didn't turn to see the man laying on top of one of the cages playing with some keys. "That kid, doesn't know anything. I mean, Wrath is a hot head and thinks he can fight, Lust is just a sex addicted soul, Greed, you don't want to meet him. But me and Pride, man we're like, I don't know man. She's my sister but I wouldn't try to mess with her when she's pissed." I continued to move forwards. "It doesn't matter who is talking to her, just like me, nothing gets through her head." He laughed a bit as I reached the cage of the sleeping girl. "Pride is... stubborn."

"And you're Sebastian?" I asked.

"My human name, sure. Only Envy calls me that... and Arella but she's like a mom to me. I prefer my real name, Sloth." He chucked the keys to the ground near my feet. "Have fun getting her out of that cage. You'll hurt her ego by seeing her like this." I turned to him, seeing his long dark brown hair falling off the side of the cage. He had on gray cargo pants, and a white T-shirt and was staring at the ceiling. I picked up the keys.

"For one of the bad brothers, you don't seem half bad." I spoke.

"That's because I don't have a reason to do anything right now. I mean, sure, Dad said to catch you and what not, but he never gave a time limit. I'll do it some other time... or let someone else do it."

"I'm a target now?"

"We'll, you weren't until you proved your powers by getting here. It was half of the reason for bringing Pride here." Sloth yawned and rolled on his side so he was staring at the wall opposite me. This conversation was over for now.

I turned back to Rachel's cage and unlocked the door. Almost immediately, a black hand wrapped around me and pulled me into the cage, hiding me from the newcomers entering the basement... the cage was shut and locked again. "Any change?" Jaremy's voice asked.

"None." Sloth mumbled. "She's healed completely."

"Well that's not fun." The man's laugh echoed into the room whiling up the animals in the other cages. "Unlock her."

"Do it yourself." I heard key's clash against the ground. Moments later the cage was unlocked and the man stepped inside. I heard the hissing of a snake and a sharp intake of breath.

"Common little girl, what will it be today?" The man asked. "Lion, Bear, you haven't been in a bare cage before." There was no response. "Or you cold stop fighting and... join the rest of us? Just like you should've long ago."

"I'd wrather die." The venom in her voice shocked me.

"Still fighting, how do you keep all that energy? Bare it is." There was silence for a while, a door opening, and a sound of a crack. A broken bone. Not long after did the sounds of screams echo through the room and the energy hand around seemed to denigrate. The screams were agonizing to listen too, I closed my eyes, even if it was dark already. Victor sends someone soon please.

I felt a rush of wind around me and opened my eyes slightly too see that I wasn't surrounded in black anymore, instead I was standing in front of Rachel holding off the bear, in my human form, thank you Elasti-Girl. "Well, this is an interesting turn of events." The man's voice mused, as if knowing that I was there the entire time. I pushed the bear against the bars of the cage, making a decent sized dent in the metal and nearly knocking it unconscious. I turned to face Rachel's kidnappers, Jaremy had Rachel trapped in his arms, her skin was glowing red. The man stepped into the cage, getting the bare to back away, a seconds glance at him brought shock and confusion into my mind. "Surprised?" He asked, the voice I recognized laced with a dark hissing undertone.

The man looked just like my father had before he died. Short blond hair, light blue eyes... his cloths were a simple black suit. "Fear is a devouring thing, isn't it? Garfield." He crossed his arms behind his back. I didn't move, just looked at the false image of my father as his skin started to echo the burns from the explosion. "But... you don't fear tangible items, do you?" The walls around the room started darkening, voices started to whisper in the air.

"What the hell-" Jaremy spoke, so I wasn't the only one that could see this. I saw Rachel staring at me and shifted my attention back to the man.

"If you're trying to control me with fear." I spoke quietly. "I've learned to suffer through it."

_Garfield_ Mother's voice screamed out as the room turned black, I felt the bare shift closer to me, about to attack and my body shifted, turning into something small, able to see in the dark. A cat. I ran out of the cage, seeing the man turn towards me as I shut the door on him and transformed back into a human.

I could take advantage of their inability to see, Sloth was still sitting on top of one of the cages, yawning. Jaremy was working on shoving Rachel back into the cage she was in before. I rammed my fist into his spine making him double over, the sound of a crack echoing through the air. I might have broken a bone or two. Rachel stood, blind, I could tell that she didn't know what was going on in the dark. I grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the staircase, climbing... opening the door and entering the light of the main house.

I didn't stop to check on her until she pulled her hand away, and cradled it to her chest. "Is it broken?" I asked cautiously. She nodded. I pressed my hand to my ear, sending out another signal for Victor to find, hopefully.

"You're scared of Da-" she started to say when the door to the basement had opened and the man walked out, now with blood red skin, four glowing red eyes, and the same black suit on. The black followed him and it slowly crept into the larger space. Sloth followed and I felt my limbs growing heavy.

He walked straight towards me, pushing Rachel back into her brother's arms as he passed her. My mind was creating a hundred different ways to get out of this situation, but my body wasn't working with any of them. He pulled something out of his pocket and roughly pushed my head to the side, a needle forced itself into my neck.

Glutney is an intense hunger for something.


	13. Part Two: Anger

The cages had been removed from the basement while I was unconscious. Rachel hadn't been let out of here, and there was only a dim light above us, barely making enough light to see, for her at least. Whatever Trigon had injected into me, hightend my senses to that of a mixture of animals, just while I was in my human form. That's about all I could process within the last five minutes, since I woke, chained to a wall with a collar around my neck that didn't have any latches to remove.

My head was in her lap, that was about all the joy I could find in our current situation. She barely touched me though, her thoughts were elsewhere, her eyes looking blankly at the wall. I hesitantly lifted my hand into the air and looked at it. What I saw was expected, but still scared me. A thin layer of fur covered my skin on the outside of my hand, as well as along my arm. The inside of my hand had been left, just like any animal with fur. I ran my thumb along the outside of my index finger, it was soft. I sat up when the door opened, two sets of foot steps could be heard coming down the stairs. "An airship, above us." Trigon mused. "Filled with all the Titans, I wonder how they'll feel fighting against a friend." The chain I was attacked to appeared in his hand and I was dragged towards him.

"I won't touch them." I growled when he was close enough to hear.

"You don't have a choice." I heard the crack of bones and Rachel screamed. I turned to see Jaremy holding her down and stepping on a newly broken leg. My body started trembling and I fell to my knees, my head started pounding. Trigon's laugh echoing through the room is the last thing I heard as my mind went blank.

"_Garfield." I was kneeling on a rock, looking at a pond with fish carefully swimming in a pattern. I stood and dropped onto the ground before turning towards the girl. Her long hair shinned in the moonlight, her short silk dress moved slightly with the wind. I walked up to her and placed my hand on her cheek._ _In her eyes I could see a beast holding a man to the ground and ripping his limbs off one by one._

"_Who are you?" I asked, my voice chilled. The beast moved, targeting a large man, with what looked like red skin. I could see the anger, the fire in it's eyes._

"_You already know that." She responded. "Buy who are you." Her hand pushed mine off of her face. She touched mine for a moment. "What are you?"_

I grabbed the man with a clawed hand and with little effort tore off his forearm. I bit into his Carotid Artery and ripped off nearly half his neck and watched as the body crumpled to the ground. I turned towards Rachel as my body shifted back to normal. I was covered in blood, there were pools of blood at my feet and limbs across the open room. I saw that her skin was glowing red, illuminating the room, but it wasn't from Trigon, I could see his lifeless body on the ground next to me.

Her eyes were wide, she was scared. Terrified. I wanted to hold her, comfort her, but I'm the monster, the one who killed. Not something the Hero type would do. I took a step forwards, and another, until I was a few paces away from her. She closed her eyes, I dropped to my knees and stared at the ground. Any minute they would find us. They would know what I did. I heard the rattle of my loose chain and looked up to see her hands lift it from the ground. "Rachel..."

"Y-You did nothing wrong." She spoke shakily. "R-Remember that. H-He-" I reached out and tried to take the chain out of her hands. When our skin brushed I felt my skin burning and pulled away. She clutched onto the chain as the door opened again.

A light shinned onto where my chain was attached to the wall. The metal footsteps of Victor started down the steps as the light slowly followed the chain, to the puddles of blood, then finally reaching my back. I could see my shadow against the wall, as well as Rachel's next to mine. She pulled the chain towards her and I shifted slightly, not letting it move me entirely. "You're not at fault." She whispered.

"Rachel." Victor spoke out seeing her, "you're alright... what happened?"

"They were going to use him... to kill everyone." Rachel spoke, keeping most of the studer our of her voice. "Trigon... he put something into his system..." The light hit me entirely and I could see my hands were a light green, stained red from the blood. I curled my hands into fists to try and stop my trembling. The light moved around the room to the scattered body parts of Jaremy and Trigon's lifeless body.

"Shit dude, what the hell did they drug you with?" Victor tried to make a humorous comment but it didn't work even for him. "I found them!" He called up to the others in the house before walking over too us. "Let's get you both back upstairs." knelt down next to us and his finger changed into a blowtorch that he used to cut through the chains. When the metal dropped, I let him help me stand as Rachel followed the suit. She still held the chain as if she would loose me if she let go. I followed her upstairs and into a hall of people leading outside. I couldn't look at anyone. Not even Steve or Rita when the two came to bring us back aboard the ship, I was given cloths and allowed to shower.

_She reached out her hand and trailed a finger up the inside of my hand, starting at the tip of my middle finger and past my rist. She kept tracing the inside of my arm over to my right shoulder blade and started tracing letters in cursive P. R. I. D. E. The trail burned my skin. I grabbed her rist and brought it to my lips. I bit the palm of her hand where the rist connected to the thumb, leaving lines as if I were trying to bite the skin off. She smiled at this, and brought the same hand to run through my wet hair._

"Garfield." There was a knock on the bathroom door as I stared at myself in the mirror as I was dressing. All I had left was to put my shirt on. The mark from that dream... it was here, in a layer of black fur compared to the green I had acquired. I slipped the long sleeved shirt over my head and opened the door, coming face to face with Robin. Well almost face to face, he was shorter than me.

"Finally, there's like a line to use the bathroom." He pushed me out and went in, the line he spoke of, wasn't existing. I walked on deck to find the airship in motion again, Wally was at my side the moment I stepped into the sunlight. He pushed me over to the table we sat at yesterday and gave me a sympathetic smile.

"You're not the only one who's killed on this ship." He whispered to me. That statement gave me a little relief. I sat next to Lucky and Nightwing, neither of who were paying attention to me at the moment. I listened to Rachel explain what happened to a hologram of Batman who was most likely cleaning up the mess.

The hologram Batman turned when I sat and stared at me for a moment as Rachel finished the story. "Boy, when you were searching for her, did you encounter anything strange?" He asked me. I nodded slightly.

"There was a period of time where I was traveling in the sewers, I heard Terra talking with... Deathstroke."

"What?" Nightwing grabbed everyone's attention.

"We were informed that Deathstroke was broken out of his prison." Batman continued with our conversation. "Could you tell what direction they were heading in?"

"South, opposite of where Rachel's trail led." I nodded slightly. The hologram vanished.

"Back to Deathstroke hunting." Victor sighed at the thought.

"Or not, we deserve a break." Wally added in. "Hello Rachel was just kidnapped by her psychopath father."

"Who's now dead." Victor reminded him. "No worrying about him ever again... Right?" He turned towards Rachel. She was looking at my hand, where the pitch black trail of skin led into my shirt. I curled my hand into a ball.

"He won't be coming back." She responded absently.

"You still deserve a brake." Nightwing commented almost forcefully. "When we get back to the Logan Reserve, I'll give you a few months free, unless something big comes up."

"Sweet." Wally and Victor gave each other a high-5.

"What about you?" Nightwing turned towards me. "Getting your powers under control is a need-to-do ordeal, the easiest way to do that is by joining a team."

"I'd prefer to stay at my ranch... if it's possible." He nodded slightly. Something phased behind him, a cloaked figure.

"Garfield." The urgency of his voice grabbed the attention of anyone who was around us. The cloak was blown off of his face and the shading of light around him kept changing. "You need to get back here, now."

"Edward stop standing around and help!" Someone yelled from 'off-screen.'

"Now would be a great time for you to show up. With all those superhero friends and what not." His image flickered away and I turned in the direction of home. The cloud of smoke in the air could be seen from here. Before anyone could do anything, I was in the air, and Lucky was jumping off of the platform knowing that I would catch her. (Giant eagle from Lord of the Rings, I'm able to transform into.) We were heading straight for home, faster than the ship was traveling.

"How the hell does a fire get that large in our reserve?" She asked, expecting no answer until we landed a half hour later, in front of the ranch that was also burning down. Edward, Arella and Leon were sheltering a few animals as well as all of the workers in what looked to be a forcefeild tent. I ran over to them, seeing the few baby animals slightly wounded and being treated by the few rangers that had been able to escape the flames.

"It was a woman, and a large ape." Leon told me. "The woman started the fire and the ape spread it, it seemed like he knew exactly where too set fire too."

"Garfield." Lucky nearly whispered and grabbed onto my shirt's sleeve. I turned, "Max-" I didn't hear what she said next. My eyes were fixed to the bundle that held the small monkey. My best friend, lay motionless, in a bundle of blankets. Max isn't coming back from this... not like before.

Wrath is uncontrollable hatred or rage towards someone or something.


	14. Part Two: Goodbye

In an ideal path of my life that supposedly was never an option for me to walk down, if my ranch had burned down in some forest fire started by some pranksters that didn't know where to go and got lost while liting the fire, the Rangers and I would've put it out and had those pranksters arrested and gone on in our normal life style that we had grown to adapt over the years of working together. But my life didn't like the idea path.

I suppose it started when I was a kid, my parents had died in a freak chemical explosion along with Max's mother. Max's father had been the one the experiment was placed on and I find it hard to belive that I could forget such a simple name as Mallah, but seeing as I was a kid back then, who blocked out everything that frightened me, like the images of the explosion, having chemically altered DNA dround my skin and practly burn it off while trying to protect the newborn ape I later named Max. Or the images of my parents body's in a pile of limbs, still barely alive, trying to tell me to run, or that they loved me, and the large ape that was trying to get me and his son out of the building before it collapsed on us all, at the time I didn't notice that he, had also been drenched in the chemical.

Because of that accident, my life was never exactly normal. I under the care of my god-father Bruce Wayne, who had an foster son at the time and we had already been friends for a while before the accident. While I was hospitalized, I was told that in my parents will, they wanted him to look after everything until I was old enough to take care of the ranch myself. But I still lived there, raised by the workers and awaiting the next common visit from my friend and Bruce. Max lived in the house with me, and because of his exposure to the chemical, he never grew, he was always small, but strong and my best friend.

So as we grew older, as strange as my life had been, it was normal for us. The visits from Bruce slowed and Richard stopped seeing me once we hit highschool, we still kept in contact, he just had a lot of things to do. When Lucky started working for me, just out of highschool, things seemed to shift, things broke more often and she would always take the blame for them, I didn't expect her to have powers that made her have bad luck as well as give other people bad luck. Then Karin Beecher started working for me, she called herself Bee so that's what everyone called her. Life became more easy, it seemed to flow.

Back a few days ago, I would've never thought I would have to deal with this. Stress, the loss of practically my entire life, my best friend, some good friends that worked for me. They were found after the fire, the Rangers, not all of them had made it out of the houses on time. Five people dead, hundreds of animals dead. All because of a mistake my parents had made when I was a kid. I didn't want to blame them, in fact, they themselves didn't expect any of this to happen, but right now. It was easiest to push the blame onto them.

When the air-ship had landed, to see the last of my burning home crumble to the ground, as well as the barn, and the make-shift shelter that was set up for the people who had got to safety, and the few animals that they were able to save. Like Roar the Cheetah. I wasn't able to look at anyone, this was my fault, which was entirely untrue. I couldn't have none that Mallah was sending out information to a villain group out in some random country, I couldn't have none that one day some superhero's would show up in my life and flip my world upside down once again. These aren't things that come with labels.

So when the police show up, the information I know is handed over, the body's are retrieved from the reserve and all the formalities have been done, I take Max's limp body, wrapped in a blanket and Lucky and I disappear from sight, leaving the small conversations to continue. Lucky pulls a shovel out of the rubble of the barn and we walk, I don't know how long we walk for, or where we walk too but eventually we're under the shade of the few trees that were left with their leaves.

From here I can see mostly the entire reserve, as well as my burnt home. A small gathering of people has already formed here. Rachel, with Wally's jacket wrapped around her shoulders. She's looking at the ground where a stone lay ready to be engraved on. Wally, standing being Rachel watching as the two of us stand. Victor holding Bee in his arms as she looks like she's about to cry. Last are two people I didn't expect to find. Richard stand with his arm wrapped around Kori's waist, he looks similar to what I last saw on a magazine, a leather jacket and jeans, jet-black hair that reaches his eyes, brushed to the side. Kori had a simple purple tank top and dark blue skirt, her orange hair was up in a ponytail.

No one speaks as Lucky starts digging, making sure the hole isn't too wide nor is it too deep. It remains silent as I place the wrapped body in the hole, moving it carefully as if it were a sleeping baby. We take turns carefully placing dirt over him, leaving a small mound of dirt in front of the rock.

Rachel traces his name on the rock under the tree stump, her index finger moving slowly to let her power engrave the letters into the stone. She looks at me when she's done, standing upright. I could tell she understood my unspoken message. Thank You. Slowly we all make our way back to the remains of the house. Nothing is spoke, because nothing has to be. I knew I was surrounded by people that have experienced similar things to me, people that aren't like normal humans. I was surrounded by friends, people who I could trust. Rachel walked at my pace, behind everyone. Not wanting me to feel left out, but giving enough distance to tell me that she was still afraid. "You're going to hunt them down, aren't you?" She asked me after a long while of silence. Of course I was, I needed to take out my anger, I needed to see the faces of the monsters that took my life away from me. What will I do when I see their faces? I don't know, I'll tell you when that happens.

"Yeah." I responded, we both, without speaking, slowed down. Letting everyone else a great deal ahead of us before she resumed the conversation.

"Don't lose yourself." She said to me, I could tell that she knew from experience that keeping my head was what's important. "You might not come back."

"Where will you go?" I asked her, not commenting on her statements.

"Everywhere." She responded honestly, much like herself actually. I couldn't pin her as the type to settle down in one place for too long. It's just not who she is.

"And if I want to see you again?"

"You won't be alone." She responded, looking past me, I turned to see that the air-ship had turned back into it's jet form, and four people stood talking under it. "You'll have friends." I turned back to the girl and smiled a bit.

"Rachel, what was their son's name?" I asked her. She didn't answer right away, thinking about whether or not she should answer me.

"His name... was Garfield." She responded slowly, making me pause. "They loved him dearly," she started walking again, and I kept up with her, taking the time to think over what she said. How hard was it for Steve and Rita to teach me, knowing I was so like their son?

"Garfield." Rachel grabbed my attention before we walked into the crowd of super hero's. "Good luck." She said to me, giving me a small smile before disappearing between the mob. The rest of the day was met with slow goodbye's and a lot of I'm sorry's from the people around me. Richard and I planned it out so that in the time I was gone, a park would be built in place of the reserve, the land would be given to Bruce, I don't think I'll be returning here for some time. Richard assured me that Max's grave will be kept in peace, in case I wanted to visit my little friend.

I said good bye to Lucky and Bee, telling them that if they still wanted to work with me, I had another reserve up north, but they already knew that. Bee gave me a necklace that she had always worn, it was a wolf. Lucky just punched my arm and told me to do my best in hunting the bastards down. Wally and Victor had offered me a full-time membership to be apart of their team, I declined but asked them to keep the space open.

At some point or another, I had found Roar and started carrying him around with me. I found Rachel talking with Robin, and cautiously asked her to look after the little guy, she agreed, after some persuasion from both me and Robin. Robin gave me something off of his utility belt, some sort of communication device. "It's if you ever want to get ahold of everyone." He had said with a grin. I left shortly after, making my way to the Doom Patrol and formally asking to join them.

They left shortly after agreeing, taking me on their jet to their next location. I stood at a window watching as the ranch slowly faded out of sight. Rita placed her hand on my shoulder. "Good bye's are always the hardest part." She said to me.

"It's only for a little while." I responded, hoping that it was true. Secretly wishing that I could just see their faces and want to go home and forget all of this ever happened. Forget about my powers, and the people I met, but that's not possible. Not anymore at least. I looked at the palm of my hand where the mark had been left. Rita smiled at me, taking me over to the table where the others sat talking about new things they could see while traveling to their next location, Rome.

My mind vuagly wondered what exactly went through Rita's mind whenever she heard my name, what went through Steve's mind? What is Rachel doing now? What about Lucky or Bee or Wally or Victor? What happens next?

Pride is a satisfied sense of attachment toward one's own or another's choices and actions

* * *

**A Note To all those readers that have stayed with this story, Thank you. Originally this is where I planned to end the story, though considering the changes that have been made to the ending, plans have been made to continue with Zoophobia, whether it be in this same story, or a new story all together, I'm unsure yet. But there will be another chapter in this set, whether it be to tell you that there will be a Part Three and Four to this story, or to say that I've decided to make a the next two parts into a sequel.**

**Thank you all again for staying with this story, and if you're new readers and have made it this far, I hope you enjoyed it. I know this chapter was a bit depressing, and even though i never really got into Garfield's and Max's relationship too much, know that when I made Max he was in fact the closest friend Garfield has ever had.**

**~Butterfly Arrows**


	15. Nyctophobia

Hay, I just wanted to let all of you lovely readers know that I've decided to make a sequel instead of turning this into a longer story. It's name will be Nyctophobia meaning the fear of the Dark or Night and like this story it will be based on Rachel and Garfield, finally setting into motion the romance that will develop. Keep an eye out for Nyctophobia and I hope you enjoy the next 14 chapters.

~Butterfly Arrows


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